A SHORTAGE of money is stopping the city's unsung sons and daughters being honoured – despite a promise made 15 years ago.
A proposed list of names and sites for commemorative plaques was put forward by city councillors and Nottingham Civic Society in 1998.
While some of the famous names can now be seen around the city, others, including Raleigh Cycles founder Frank Bowden and children's novelist Geoffrey Treece, are still yet to be recognised.
When the Post contacted the council to find out why some of the plaques had never been made it could not give a definitive reasons and said it was happy to support plaques – but that the civic society was responsible for new plaques.
The civic society said a lack of money was stopping it putting up the plaques.
Chairwoman Hilary Silvester said: "It is something we would like to do and we are looking in to what we can do and how we can do it at the moment. We've been encouraging people to contact us about the subject and a lot of people have.
"Recently quite a lot of towns and cities have been putting up plaques. Beeston and Stapleford in particular have a very good programme and I have spoken to someone there and will do again to find out more about how we can go about doing something similar.
"It is a good time to do it and people are interested in their history, in particular in people in history because everyone likes to look up ancestors."
From the original list of names put forward in 1998, four plaques were installed.
As well as being recognised through the Adams Building at New College Nottingham, Thomas Adams (1817-1873), a lace manufacturer and merchant who was born in Worksop and apprenticed at Newark, has a plaque dedicated to him at St Mary's Church in the Lace Market.
George Africanus (1763-1834) Nottingham's first black entrepreneur who started out as a house slave, also has a plaque at St Mary's, close to his burial place in the churchyard, while England cricketer and Bell Inn landlord William Clarke's name hangs on the walls of the pub in Old Market Square.
A marble plaque on a block of flats in Hyson Green is dedicated to Mary Potter, as a health centre being named after her.
Ms Silvester was not sure why all the plaques never materialised.
"It would be really good if we could now get some of these up and any others that people want to see as well. Ideally people who would like to see a plaque go up will have the means and will to pay for it and then we will simply sort out the paperwork for them."
