This may come across as a completely naive thread but I am genuinely annoyed and upset. I noticed that the war memorial in my town has been hit by local scum, who have spray painted, cracked and destroyed parts of it. There are also tell tale needles and cider bottles littered around it. I have never seen such an act of blatant disrespect in all of my life. To make things worse, I approached the cleansing department of my council, where I was treated like an absolute idiot for caring about our memorial and they shrugged it off and said they couldn't do anything about it. Is this true though? Do local councils have control over the war memorials or is it an independent body? I welcome your responses as I would like to get something done about it!

Lynsey

Try your local MP and ask them to ask

Letter to the local newspaper?

Moonraker

Contact your councillor, your MSP. Your MP. Tell them your complaint and ask what they are going to do about it. Get in touch with the cleansing department and the parks and leisure or whatever name they are using as a camouflage this season. This time, when you speak to anyone, ask their name and position. Get them to spell it if you are feeling really mean. Ask to be put through to the person in charge. Ask this person what they are going to do about it. As a last resort, try to get the local paper interested.

Perhaps the local paper and the British Legion would make a good combination?

Thankyou so much for your quick responses! I will get on to the situation straight away! I will definitely keep you posted too!

Lynsey

POW I agree with the other posters it often comes down to creating enough of a fuss. I note you are in Scotland, given their recent success would the SNP be interested in this, local news especially television etc. As suggested be mean taking names frightns civil servants and LG officers. Perhaps the war memorials trust might give advice. Their link is below and they have a memorials at risk section, might yours fall into that category..if so report it., Good luck SG

War Memorials trust site

Lynsey

The short answer is that it depends. The main factor is where it is. If it's a sort of "main" one in the town, then it is almost certain the council will be responsible for its maintenance.

Sometimes, however, they are on private land (often churches) and then it is the owner that would be responsible.

If it is a memorial in a rural village, then pinning down which local authority has responsibility can be difficult - could be the parish council, could be the "main" council.

Let me assume that it is the "main" one in town and that it's likely to be the local council which is responsible. It is almost certain that it will be the cemeteries department that you need to contact (not the cleansing department). . If they are anything like the department in my town, then they probably either know about the problem already and restoration is in hand (or will be most grateful to you for telling them).

Other posters are suggesting that you kick up a major fuss about this - I'd suggest not doing this until you know you actually have a problem with the right people.

You mention that not only has the memorial been spray painted but that it is also cracked and partially destroyed. Repair and restoration will require specialist contractors (perhaps including stone masons) - not the sort of job normally within the remit of a local authority cleansing department.

John

Further.....assuming that we are talking about the Dalry memorial, then a quick Google indicates that it will be the North Ayrshire Council which has responsibility.

Lynsey - it may be worth you sending a PM to Forum member Rob Bulloch. Rob has had previous contact with the Council to arrnage for a name to be added to the memorial, so may have a name for you you to ring. Rob's Forum post on the subject indicated that the Council was very amenable to adding the name - in itself a good indication that they are likely to want to keep their memorial in good maintenance.

John

Lyn,

I had a similar problem up ear in Hull, I took photos of the Graffiti and reported it to the Police as 'Criminal Damage'. It took a while and a few phone calls but it ended up in the local papers and on the local radio. The outcome was that the girls who did it were called to the Police Station with their parents, and explained the error of their ways. The monument was cleaned and is still OK.

"Who cares wins"

Regards Charle

My experience with local authorities is that you can get most 'reasonable' things done if you find the right person, cultivate anyone who shows understanding and sympathy for the problem, and, if all else fails, direct your concerns to someone at a level where they have obligations under the authority's accountability policy and are therefore obliged to give you a response — usually the Director for the service concerned.

As John H suggests, scope out the problem first. Your local town council may not be responsible for the Memorial — but they are almost certainly responsible for litter and hazardous waste dumped around it. My local council proposes and provides logistical support (tools, skips, etc) to local environmental clean-up projects to be carried out by 'volunteers' taking part in the 'Community Pay-Back' scheme (ie. offenders ordered to do community service). This would not be an appropriate solution to the physical damage to the Memorial (which will require specialist attention), or to the hazardous waste problem, but it may be a way of getting the surroundings of the Memorial tidied and 'prettified' after the specialists have done their bit.

Once the immediate problem is resolved, there may be scope for a bit of local initiative to 'love your Memorial'. I recall a very cheering story that emerged last year of a florist who provides cut flowers and growing plants to decorate her local memorial. There is generally more to be achieved by engaging local goodwill than by bashing the heads of the wrong people at the local council.

Good luck!

Further......Lynsey.......I see that the memorial is in a public park. In which case, maintenance responsibility may lie with North Ayrshire's Parks Department - but I'd still recommend contacting the cemeteries people first.

The clearing of litter around the memorial will, however, be the responsibility of the Parks people.

It sounds that the memorial has become a gathering place for the local druggies and drinkers. That can be a difficult issue to tackle. I don't know if Scotland's law on the subject of "moving people on" is different from England's - bit "down here", police have the pwer to disperse groups. The difficulty is that they just move to another part of the park or the town.

The sentiments expressed by Mick in his opening and closing sentences are much more likely to produce results than bouts of moral outrage expressed in locla newspapers, etc.

John

I agree, go with the route of finding who is responsible for the upkeepa nd get them to do something. BUT, I would also write to the local press - WITH PHOTOGRAPHS and try and highlight the issue.

I would, further, set up two Vickers with enfilading fields of fire to cover the restored and cleaned memorial from further attacks by these scum.

Hi Lynsey

I have had a similar expereience here in Wickford, Essex. It took a while but we have made huge progress and are moving on to the next stage now of resiting the memorial in a more secure area and with floodlightling. I got nowhere with the local council cleaning dept. they told me to contact the RBL as last time they funded its cleaning. I looked up a piece of legislation that stated war memorials under the 1921 act were the responsibility of local authorities to maintain. I subsequently found that a recent and later ammendment added basically as long as it didn't cost anything!! This however got my email forwarded up the tree from the jobsworth don't give a toss. The political masters were scathing of the email I had received and took appropriate action, put me in touch with the senior man responsible at the park and I had a number of meetings with him to show him what was wrong. We now have all the trees replaced all the graffiti removed and the semblance of respect. I have also visited local schools and tried to educate them about the men involved, and I think its gets through, a Spitfire pilot and paratrooper still seem to hold some elements of respect. My advice therefore would be to do the same. Get someone to put in writing that they are not going to do anything, from there send it to your local parish councilor and copy your MP in and constantly mention that you haven't gone to the papers with the scandal as you would like to see it put right quielty, the closer you can do this to a local election or other local problems/successes the better!!

Kind regards and good luck
Steve

Hiya everyone! Thanks so much for the help, I really appreciate it. We only have this one war memorial in our town and I really hope that I can generate enough public interest to get things sorted out. I'll get down to the park tomorrow and take photographs, which I will post for you to look at...the junkies will be out just now and as much I want to get something done, I don't want to die in the process! You have all really psyched me up and I will keep you in the loop about my progress.

Lynsey

Lynsey.
As John said in his post, I have been in contact with North Ayrshire Council regarding the Dalry Memorial, my request was to have a name to be added to the memorial. RSM JOHN WATSON 10th BN Canadian Infantry. Alberta Regiment,they were very helpfull, and had no problem dealing with them, they were very helpfull indeed. The phone number I have is North Ayrshire Council 01294 541505 and they will put you on to the proper department, I think it is Parks and Cemetery Dept

Regards Rob.

Contact the North Ayrshire Coucil and inform them with a little polite reminder of Josephs phrase above "Who cares wins"

Hopefully someone will take up the case from them

Thanks a lot! Perhaps, the people I spoke to were a bit irked that I was hassling the wrong department.

Lynsey

I will get on to the situation as soon as I get better

Just to let you all know pals and gals...I am making ample usage of my blog space to rehouse this thread. I will post all further developments there. Thank you all for your help...it is very much appreciated. If anyone else has any other contributions to make. Please by all means use this thread as a way of doing so!

Cheers!
Lynz

I've seen this sort of blasphemy on a number of occasions, unfortunately all of which I had seen were in various towns and cities around the country. It does really annoy me, and to think most of those doing this sort of thing are around my age and have no respect for anything, and no thought for those who have gone before.

Winordie

Hi Lynsey,

To a quick text to wish you all the best with your quest.

Womo

Unofortunately not a problem exclusive to the UK. The National War Memorial here in St. John's is often used as a skateboard park and last year two young men were photographed urinating on the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Those two were at least caught and made to amend their ways.

More info:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2006...emorialpee.html

Its a shame much more reading the remains of the Canadian Unknown Soldier are inturred there as far as I can gather. It just brings a feeling of utter disbelief.

The problem I guess is having people with the power to do something actually interested and understanding about these situations.

I was at a WFA meeting not long ago about a Lloyds TSB war memorial (be it this case is slightly off topic however but I hope it helps make the point!) that needed a home. The guy organising it had contact with someone who was well up for taking it on, unfortunately this guy moved on and was replaced. The new person in charge cancelled all the things that were planned and said it was a waste of money and resources and she was not at the least bit interested. It just goes to show you need to know the right people!

Joe

Hey everybody.

I am so sorry to hear about the incident at the war memorial in Ottowa. It just goes to show that some people do not have any respect for their history.

Lynz

Best of luck sorting out your local memorial, I wish you the best!

Joe Devereux

Thes esort of things are done by idiots. There has always been idiots. There will always be idiots.

And yes good luck from this side of the pond

Thanks chicken...with a bit of courage, perseverance and a passion for the Great War...we will wipe these scumbags out! Not literally btw...hee hee!

Lynz

How awful to put grafitti on a war memorial. I have never seen the likes and I never wish to. Well done Lynz and well done Steve (I live near Wickford). I had always thought that war memorials were the one thing that vandals left alone. How wrong I am. What a sad state of affairs.
Best of luck with this Lynz.
Susan.