IF LEDBURY Town Council is to get the town's war memorial refurbished in time for the centenary anniversary of the end of the First World War, this November, it may have to dig deep into its own reserves.

A recent meeting of the town council's armistice commemoration working party heard that The War Memorial Trust had turned down a grant application for the refurbishment of the war memorial, in Ledbury High Street.

Members of the working party expressed their "huge disappointment" and unanimously agreed that the town council should use allocated funds "and if necessary identified reserves" to fully fund the refurbishment and associated groundworks.

But this would be on the proviso that "the contractors and all other parties can give an assurance that the necessary permissions will be in place", allowing the works to be completed by a stated deadline of September 30.

The costs of the works is not stated in a working party report given to the town council, which was received at last week's annual council meeting in the Community Hall, at Lawnside.

But last year Cllr Martin Eager, who resigned from the council recently, said the separate refurbishment costs, for work including re-gilding, cleaning and re-pointing, would be in the region of £10,000 to £15,000.

The base of the war memorial is corroding, due to the elements, and much of the stone needs to be replaced. While the monument is not actually sinking into the pavement, it appears to be.

The war memorial also appears to have a slight lean, possibly because it was clipped by a lorry, about 30 years ago.