A giant white horse as tall as the Statue of Liberty is to become southern England's answer to the Angel of the North.

Whether you love it, like it, or look away, this giant horse will soon be Britain's 'Angel of the South'.

The 164 feet high sculpture by artist Mark Wallinger will dominate the rural landscape around Ebbsfleet in Kent.

More than twice the size of Antony Gormley's sixty-six feet high Angel of the North, the white horse will be Britain's biggest single piece of art.

Wallinger, 49, won the Turner Prize in 2007 for recreating the anti-war protest that peace campaigner Brain Haw erected outside Parliament. But he is perhaps best known for the Christ-like figure that he created for Trafalgar Square's empty Fourth Plinth in 1999.

ALREADY A WINNER.

Of the piece that some have called a commercial symbol and other have criticised bitterly, he says:"This is a tremendously exciting project. There was some very tough competition and I am honoured that the horse has won through."

His horse beat four other submissions, which included a structure of interconnecting polyhedrons by Richard Deacon and a stack of cubes with a laser beam passing through them by Frenchman Daniel Buren.

Michael Snelling, leader of Gravesham Borough Council, is pleased with the proposed landmark: "I'm delighted they chose the horse because that decision keeps faith with public opinion. I think they have made exactly the right decision."

"IT'S NOT A SCULPTURE; IT'S A LOGO."

But David Lee, editor of the arts newspaper The Jackdaw, complains,: "It's not a sculpture and it's not going to win any art prizes. It's intended as a logo by the housing developers."

The Horse is intended to put Ebbsfleet on the map as it gets its own international station on the new high-speed Eurostar line. It is being financed by London and Continental Railways and developer Land Securities.