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Sheerness Town Council has agreed to pay £30,000 to build the foundations for a new Sheppey-wide war memorial.
It is the first positive step towards Peter MacDonald’s 10-year campaign for a £130,000 30-foot long Portland Stone wall at the back of the cenotaph in Bridge Road.
It will be long enough to have 1,000 additional names engraved which are missing from the current memorial.
Cllr MacDonald, 79, who represents Sheppey Central on Swale council, said: “I am delighted the new council has agreed to come on board. It will finally get this long-awaited project started to honour so many Sheppey families who lost fathers, brothers and husbands.
“It will be something outstanding for the Island and should certainly outlive me.”
He added: “It is the right time to do this. It is the 75th anniversary of VE Day in May and the existing memorial will have been standing for 100 years in April 2022.”
The campaign began after the late Sidney Pepper wrote to the Sheerness Times Guardian complaining that none of his school friends who died in the war were featured on the town’s main memorial.
Cllr MacDonald said: “I knew there were names missing. I have had help from Derek Gray and Peter West of Eastchurch Aviation Museum to validate all the extra names of those who died in the First and Second World Wars and other conflicts. The sheer number is astonishing.”
He already has planning permission for the first phase which will replace the existing base with high quality wheelchair-friendly York paving slabs sloping from the pavement to the back of the memorial. He must now register the Sheppey War Memorial Trust as a charity so it does not have to pay VAT.
He said: “It is outrageous Whitehall insists VAT is payable on a project like this . We are in the process of applying for charitable status.”
Queenborough Fisheries Trust has already pledged some money.
Cllr MacDonald, a member of Minster parish council, said: “If it went out to tender it could cost £500,000 but I believe we could do it for £130,000. It is still a lot of money but Sheppey deserves something of quality.
"I believe Swale council has a moral responsibility to lead the way but I would also appreciate contributions from businesses.”
He has gained listed building consent and has been in talks with Albion Stone in Weymouth which makes Portland stone which is used for other memorials and all war grave headstones. The company has agreed to erect the wall and engrave all the names.
Cllr MacDonald stressed: “This is not to praise war but to be a memorial to all those Sheppey families affected by it.
"My grandpa died in the Great War in 1917. My mum was only seven but vividly remembered her mother screaming when she heard the news her husband had died.”
The existing memorial only includes names of those who lived or died in Sheerness. The new one will be Island-wide.
Swale Cllr Cameron Beart (Con) said: “In 2015, planning permission was passed for a wall with names of all the war dead. I would like the council to take these proposals forward.”
A Swale council spokesman said: “Our First World War fund has come to an end but there are heritage grants and members’ grants from councillors.”
