War hero 'absolutely disgusted' as memorial not restored in time for D-Day anniversary
Armistice Day how now been set as the target to have it restored, leaving Norman Birkett furious. He said: "It's terrible isn't it? I'm absolutely disgusted."
A war hero was "absolutely disgusted" to find that his local memorial had not been restorned in time for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Norman Birkett fought for 18 months to have the base of the memorial cleaned and the 22 names on it repainted as many of them are now "illegible".
The memorial is in St Nicholas Church in Tuxford, and the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham claimed that it is uncertain who owns it, repair work would be classed as criminal damage.
They added that just because there was "some sort of public interest" - the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6 - it made no difference and work could not be done.
They have now set Armistice Day as the target to have it restored, leaving Birkett, 82, furious. He said: "It's terrible, isn't it? I'm absolutely disgusted.
"It's just gone on and on and we're up against a brick wall at the minute trying to prove who owns a 102-year-old monument. It's on church grounds and you assume the Church of England is a Christian organisation. Where is the compassion and the common sense?"
Councillor Emma Griffin, a Conservative Party member of Bassetlaw District Council, responded to the outrage as she had been working with Birkett on his campaign to have the memorial restored.
She said: "The cross was repaired in 1999 and we can't find any faulty documents for that and we don't know who paid for it. All we want is to get it cleaned and for the names to be repainted. We're not asking for any structural change.
"We're offering to pay for it completely and the money we raised is in a ring-fenced account. We even had an approved stonemason who had us in his calendar up until two weeks ago but, because we didn't get the faculty, he has now had to push us back."
The Church of England requires ministers and churchwardens to get permission from their diocese before any work can be carried out, which Griffin applied for.
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The diocese sent an email to Griffin, reading: "The prime question is the ownership of the memorial. The rights of the owner of the memorial are those of the owner of any other property, with few modifications.
"The petitioner has no more right to restore and alter the war memorial than she would have, for example, to restore and alter a house she did not own. She might be able to obtain the consent of the owner, of course, but that would mean either discovering who the owner was or possibly getting the consent of all possible owners."
Birkett joined the Army at age 16 and served in Libya and Cameroon with the Royal Engineers. He doesn't believe the memorial is owned by any authority.
It appears it was paid for by donations from the Tuxford community and erected by locals, and Birkett claims to have it in writing that it's not the property of Bassetlaw District Council or Tuxford Town Council
