WANTAGE’S crumbling war memorial needs repairs costing £18,000 just seven years after a major restoration project.

Wantage Town Council spent about £9,000 restoring the monument seven years ago, but errors were made on the plaques and the stone base has begun to disintegrate.

New town council member St John Dickson said he was ashamed at the Remembrance Service in the SS Peter and Paul churchyard this month.

He said: “We were embarrassed by the state of it and as a matter of respect it needs to be replaced as soon as we can.”

Wantage parish priest Father John Salter said the church will now step in and spend about £18,000 repairing the 63-year-old monument next year.

Conservative Mr Dickson added: “It has fallen into a state over the years and it needs to be renovated desperately. We need to bring it back to its former glory.

“It is shameful that we have such a dreadful war memorial.

“We should do everything we can to rectify it.”

Fr Salter said “It is like pastry crumbling.”

He said the work to fix the base and replace the plaques would take place in April.

David Drew, Poppy Appeal co-ordinator for the Vale of White Horse and Berkshire Royal British Legion, said: “It is a shame it is in the state it is in.

“There have been a lot of arguments in the past and I hope something can be sorted out soon.”