TWO of York's memorials to the war dead have been listed in a national "dossier of shame" presented to the Government in a mission to protect such monuments from falling into rack and ruin.

And today, the City of York Council revealed to the Evening Press plans to introduce tough by-laws to ban "undesirables" from gathering to drink in the gardens surrounding York's war memorials in a move to stamp out vandalism.

Former Tory Home Office Minister David Maclean has handed MPs his dossier.

He wants them to be listed so they can be protected and is calling on town halls to be compelled to maintain them.

Among those highlighted in the dossier are the Duncombe Place 1905 South African Memorial to Yorkshire soldiers who died in the Boer War and the memorial at Station Rise to thousands of railwaymen who died in World War One, which was designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.

The gardens of the South African Memorial, near York Minster, are often used by street drinkers and the monument has been subject to vandalism. The railway memorial's problem has been that scores of names carved in the Portland stone have been eroded by wind and rain.

Sir Donald Thompson, director general of the pressure group Friends of War Memorials, which compiled the dossier, said people in York had a responsibility to protect these important landmarks.

Sir Donald said: "I would advise people to get together on an ad hoc committee and look for ways to address the problem. It is part of our culture and heritage. These sacrifices were huge and just because they have gone, we should not forget them."

And Tony Coultate, former chairman of the British Railways Engineers Ex-Servicemens' Association, backed the city council's move.

He added: "We said at the end of the wars, their names shall live for ever more. If we just let memorials fall into ruin, their names will not live for ever more."

Paul Chesmore, director of leisure services at City of York Council, said he hoped the bylaws would cut down on the problem of vandalism at the city's memorials in Duncombe Place, Leeman Road, Acomb Green and Salisbury Road.

He said the council had recently spent £1,000 cleaning up the South African Memorial.

He added: "We don't regard these things as ancient monuments. They are as relevant today as when they were first erected."

A spokeswoman for Rail Property Ltd, which looks after the British Railways Board-owned Station Rise memorial, said plans to clean up the monument were on hold while advice was being sought on whether the names could be re-carved.

She said: "A master stone mason has told us that the surface is like Weetabix and if we started to re-engrave the surface it would crumble away."

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