Sheppey has come a step closer to getting its first Island-wide war memorial wall.

Members of Swale council's new Sheppey Area Committee have agreed to back the project and have asked the Cabinet to consider underwriting part of its £126,000 cost.

Cllr Peter MacDonald (Con, Sheppey Central) has been campaigning for a 30-ft wall of Portland Stone to be built behind the existing war memorial in Bridge Road, Sheerness, for a decade and gained planning permission from Swale council in 2015.

Sheerness Town Council has already offered to pay £28,000 towards renewing the paved area around the memorial to make it wheelchair-friendly and Queenborough Fisheries Trust and Peel Ports have agreed to stump up a further £10,000 between them.

Cllr MacDonald, 79, said: "We are now in a position to start. We just need a little more money."

He added: "I must stress that this is for the whole Island. There are some 1,606 names which need to be added. I have even had people offering to pay to have their relatives' names engraved on the existing memorial."

Cllr Lee McCall (Ind, Sheerness) said: "I’m glad the committee unanimously recommended to the cabinet to provide funding for this project, especially as it is within my ward. There has been a significant amount of time put into the project by Cllr MacDonald and others to research and raise funds but there is still a long way to go.

"The Sheerness war memorial is of particular historical significance because of its unusual design with Liberty as a secular and non-triumphalist tribute. It is also one of the few war memorials in the UK that also features civilian names alongside those of the military. The missing names should be added."

Cllr Cameron Beart (Con, Queenborough and Halfway) said: "I asked Swale council to consider this in November 2018 but due to the budget being set shortly before an election and the closure of the First World War Fund it was not possible at the time.

"This project should be considered a worthy cause. I hope the rest of the Cabinet will look more favourably on the recommendation."

The campaign for a wall of names began after the late Sidney Pepper wrote to this paper complaining that none of his school friends who died 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 added: "I am hoping the Island will finally get this long-awaited project started to honour so many Sheppey families who lost fathers, brothers and husbands. It is the right time to do this. The existing memorial will have been standing for 100 years in April 2022.”

He is shocked, however, that the Sheppey War Memorial Trust must pay VAT. He said: “It is outrageous Whitehall insists VAT is payable on a project like this."

He says if the project had gone out to tender it could cost £500,000 but he believes it can be done for less than £150,000.

He said: "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 been in talks with Albion Stone in Weymouth which makes Portland Stone which is used for other memorials and all war grave head stones. The company has agreed to erect the wall and engrave all the names.

He added: “This is not to praise war but to be a memorial to all those Sheppey families affected by it. My grandpa died in 1917 in the Great War. My mum was only seven but vividly remembered her mother screaming when she heard the news her husband had died.”

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