VISITORS to Wellington Monument for an open day on Saturday were briefed on the progress being made to restore it to its former glory.

Survey work on the Monument has been ongoing for 18 months and the £4 million project has the backing of local MP Rebecca Pow who launched a petition for restoring the Monument earlier this year which was presented to Parliament in July.

The aim was to raise the profile of the much-loved Monument with the ultimate aim of raising the funds to restore it.

Ms Pow said at the weekend: “The National Trust is taking borings inside the Monument to see how much water is getting into the foundations. The project is going very well.

“We have started to brief people and this is the reason behind the open day. We have to demonstrate that there is a lot of support for the project. We have fantastic support.”

Most of the cost of the project needs to be raised from external sources and a large application is planned to be submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund next month. If this can be secured, a campaign will be launched locally to raise the additional funds required. The National Trust says the Monument is important as the tallest three-sided obelisk in the world.

If the money can be raised, it will safeguard the Monument for the next 60 years and also enable people to climb to the top again.

The Monument was built to commemorate the Duke of Wellington’s victory after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The foundation stone was laid in 1817 but the work was dogged by problems and lack of funding – it was finally completed in its current form in the 1890s.