COMMUNITY leaders have vowed to work together to ensure heroes named on a Bishop Auckland war memorial are always remembered.

Helen Goodman, MP for Bishop Auckland, has said that she is willing to work with the people of Bishop Auckland and voluntary organisations to find a way of honouring the soldiers listed on the memorial at the entrance to St Andrew’s Churchyard, South Church in next year’s commemorations.

The names include men from the parish of St Andrew’s Auckland, which includes the whole of what is now Bishop Auckland. Soldiers whose names are engraved onto the base of the 12-feet high stone memorial fell in the First World War and are from a number of different regiments.

The weathered cross and inscribed base is presently not included in Bishop Auckland’s Remembrance Day services as councillors and voluntary organisations have tended in recent years to lay wreaths at the memorial at the town’s Market Place.

However, following concerns raised by William Neilson, retired agent to former Bishop Auckland MP Derek Foster, the memorial could, in some way, be included in future commemorations.

Mr Neilson, whose grandfather’s name is on the monument, said: “When I was a councillor for Wear Valley, I would lay a wreath there every Remembrance Sunday for the local authority. But last year and the year before, there were no wreaths laid by any organisation.

“Councillors used to march to St Andrew’s church and have a service there. On the way into the church all the organisations would lay wreaths at the memorial – the Durham Light Infantry, the Lord Lieutenants, the local authority, the Royal Navy Association and the Royal Air Force Association.

"But it faded away when they moved the town’s [main] memorial from the Station Bridge to the Market Place. Then it was decided to have the service in St Anne’s church and since the early 1990s, St Andrew’s memorial seems to have been forgotten.”

Revd Canon Neville Peter Vine, of St Andrew’s Church, said he had not held a Remembrance service at the monument because he attends the service at the Market Place.

However, he added he would be willing to speak to Mr Neilson about how St Andrew’s memorial could be included in future services.

Durham County Council, which has no statutory responsibility for war memorials, has said that it would be willing to do the repairs needed and had enlisted the help of a specialist contractor to clean and refurbish it.