COME on Yorkshire, one final push. That is the message today after plans for a women's war memorial hit a last minute hitch.

The campaign to honour the women of the Second World War has been conducted with military precision and soldierly single-mindedness.

It has been driven forward by a formidable York and Selby corps, led by Major David Robertson and former ack-ack girls Mildred Veal and Edna Storr.

From their Imphal Barracks HQ, they put into place a battle plan. First, let people know of Britain's failure to honour the women who did so much to secure an Allied victory. Then appeal for help to redress this shocking omission.

This strategy has earned them a battalion of supporters from the Queen down. We signed up too, and readers of all generations were quick to back the campaign.

Last year victory seemed assured. But a gas main discovered under the planned memorial has put the project in jeopardy. Betty Boothroyd is spearheading an appeal for permission to move the monument closer to Parliament Square.

Without it, red tape will strangle plans for the Queen to unveil the memorial on the eve of the 60th anniversary of VE Day.

That would be a terrible shame. So we are calling on your support one last time. If enough people write to Westminster Council backing Miss Boothroyd's call, we can still snatch victory from the jaws of bureaucracy.

Updated: 10:35 Wednesday, February 23, 2005