A LASTING memorial to beloved Minehead cat Gizmo has been unveiled in the town nine months after his death.

The ginger and white tabby cat, who roamed throughout Minehead, was so well-known and popular that he had his own Facebook page with more than 1,400 followers.

Now, owner Angela Chilcott has used more than £800 raised in a GoFundMe appeal launched by local resident Stuart Thomas to fund a life-size memorial statue.

Mr Thomas started the appeal because Gizmo had touched the hearts of so many people in Minehead, where he could just suddenly turn up in any premises and make himself comfortable.

Minehead Town Council refused permission for the tribute to be sited in the Queen Elizabeth II Rose Garden near Ms Chilcott’s home off Seaward Way.

So, she started to look around for other locations and settled on A2B Removals and Storage, on the Mart Road industrial estate.

Ms Chilcott said: “A2B was one of the places that Gizmo used to visit.

“I have put up a statue so everybody who loved Gizmo can visit and pay their respects.

“It is a lovely little statue the size of a cat and it also keeps his memory going.”

Also attending the unveiling of the memorial was recently-elected Somerset Cllr Cara Strom, whose partner Cllr Marcus Kravis is both a Somerset and Minehead town councillor.

Gizmo is said to have been spotted in nearly every business in Minehead during almost a decade in the town, including the Butlin’s holiday resort.

One his favourite visiting spots was the Lidl supermarket, where he used to have his own ‘metalhead’ sculpture made out of scrap metal by Steven Heard.

Ms Chilcott used also to sell a ‘Gizmo calendar’ with the funds raised going to support the Cats Protection charity.