PLANS to dismantle and renovate Ledbury's "sinking" war memorial have been shelved, following advice that this cannot happen because the monument is grade II listed.

Instead all work to the memorial, which is in Ledbury High Street, must take place "in situ" and will be subject to planning permission from Herefordshire Council.

But now the clock in ticking to get the necessary restoration work completed by November 1918, which marks the centenary anniversary of the end of the First World War.

Speaking at the last full Ledbury town council meeting, Cllr Eager said: "If we can get this sorted out for next year's celebrations, that would be absolutely spot on."

The town council have now voted to spend £5500 on ground works "to address the issues of water pooling around the base of the memorial".

Water has caused corrosion at the base of the monument and helps to give the impression that the memorial is indeed sinking into the pavement.

Cllr Eager has made it a personal project to get the monument renovated and has already identified a number of problems.

Speaking in May he said: "Problems with the war memorial stem from successive road and pavement 'improvements' where the level has become higher than the base of the memorial, and so causing considerable damage."

There is also a slight lean to the monument.

But the first work will be to be replace the cobbles around the memorial with paving stones and create a shallow channel to allow excess rain water to run off.

This should have some effect in preventing rain water from pooling around the base of the memorial.

And town councillors agreed that "the existing cobbles, which had been laid in the 1980's, should be replaced as they are very uneven and slippery when wet and difficult for wheelchair users and those with reduced vision and mobility issues".