ABINGDON Town Council has put aside £60,000 in its budget to fix the town’s wonky war memorial.

Surveys have shown the 89-year-old monument is rocking from corner to corner, and the tilt is getting worse.

The council has put aside the money in this year’s budget to fix the structural problem and renovate the surrounding area.

Town clerk Nigel Warner said: “It is something we have been keeping our eye on. We have been surveying it for a number of years.”

He warned it could cost more than £60,000 to repair the monument, adding: “Our monitoring seems to suggest that the tilt is getting worse. We need to improve it so it remains a fitting tribute to our fine servicemen and women.”

Steve Rich, project and technical manager at the council, said: “The foundations go no further than the memorial itself.

It is just sitting on a small lump of concrete, and that in turn is sitting on very sandy soil.

“This has been accentuated in the past 10 years. The more it rocks, the more chance we have of damage to the memorial – but there is no danger of it falling over.

“We need to take it down and underpin it. And if we don’t repair it, it could split.

“We have to do something as the war memorial is a very special thing in Abingdon.

“It is a historical icon, and it should remain so. It is also a living monument – we are still adding names to it.”

Last night Stan Bradford, president of the Abingdon branch of the Royal British Legion, said he was pleased to hear the council was going to spend the money.

The 86-year-old said: “It is in a bit of a state.

“There must be many relatives and descendents of the fallen, who will be over the moon that something is being done to remember these people, because, at the end of the day, we owe our lives to them.”

He hoped the refurbishment would bring more people to the annual remembrance service in November.

The memorial was built in 1921 following a local fundraising effort.

Legion branch secretary Bob Griffiths said: “It has been leaning for many years. There has been lots of concern about it.”

The council hopes to start work in the winter.