Communities urged to apply for slice of £100,000 pot to refurbish Cheshire East’s war memorials

 

Communities and voluntary organisations are being urged to apply for a slice of £100,000 being provided by Cheshire East to fund the repair and refurbishment of First World War memorials across the Borough.

Council Leader Michael Jones announced the creation of the new £100,000 fund at a meeting of full Council in December.

This year sees the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War, which shattered Europe and much of the wider world from 1914 to 1918.

Application forms and details of how to apply for a slice of the new funding are now available on Cheshire East Council’s website.

The deadline for the return of application forms is March 28, 2014, and funding is available for the financial year 2014/15 only.  

Individual grants up to £2,500 are available. However, applications for sums over £2,500 but up to a maximum of £10,000 will be considered in exceptional circumstances.

Funding is available for:

● Cleaning (under certain circumstances);

● Improving legibility of inscriptions;

● Like-for-like repairs;

● Professional condition surveys or structural reports by conservation professionals to

inform future repair work;

● Replacement of lost elements integral to the design of the memorial (supported by

historical evidence);

● Addition of names, where they can be sympathetically placed on existing memorials.

Organisations such as town and parish councils, the Royal British Legion, voluntary and community groups and charities will be able to apply directly to the Council for funding.

Councillor Jones said: “I have an immense amount of respect for those who gave their lives for their country in the Great War – as I have for those who erected and maintain memorials to their sacrifice.

“I am delighted that this Council has been able to put forward £100,000 to fund repairs and refurbishment of these important local community monuments – and I would urge local communities and local organisations to get their applications in soon.

“These memorials are important, as we must never be allowed to forget the depth of loss sustained across our Borough – or our debt to previous generations’ self sacrifice to duty and the country and communities they loved.”

The First World War saw the deaths of an estimated 17 million combatants and civilians with around a further 20 million wounded.

War memorials sprang up in towns and villages across Cheshire East and the whole of Britain and beyond as a way to commemorate the sacrifice of combatants for their communities and country.

For more information about applying for this funding for war memorial repairs, visit the Council’s website at www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/warmemorials or contact the Council’s partnership support manager, Tina Jones, on 01270 685811.