Exmouth is being asked to create a giant piece of beach art for the visit of the Tour of Britain cycle race.

The finish of stage five of the Tour will be in Exmouth on September 15, and the town council wants to prepare the artwork to be filmed by ITV4’s helicopter camera crew covering the race.

The planned artwork will use 90 deckchairs to spell out the word Exmouth, and a giant smile made of sand, along with other sand sculptures.

The project will be led by Exmouth art group Createxe, who will also be putting miniature sculptures around the town, pointing people towards the beach.

The main sculpture will be made on the beach by the Octagon caf� from 10am, and people are invited to help out, and to sit in the chairs if they see the helicopter overhead.

Town management project officer Suzanne Birkett said: “It was originally going to be a large sand sculpture, but we decided it would be easier to spell Exmouth with deckchairs, then get artists to do sand sculptures around it.

“We want to give the ITV4 helicopter something amazing to look at, and it will bring something to the whole event.”