Save our war memorials: heritage organisations form action group At the meeting, the groups will look at the problems of protecting and restoring memorials and identify what can be done to ensure they are in a good condition in time for the centenary in two years time of the outbreak of the First World War. They will review the money available for memorials and look at improving access to funding. The HLF is already reviewing its current rules that it will not pay for ongoing maintenance of monuments. It will only award grants to projects which involve one-off restoration projects, cost more than £3,000 and include an element of "heritage interpretation," involving public participation or education. In addition, the organisations will review what information is available on the location and condition of monuments, consider opportunities for raising public awareness of the significance of them and produce an action plan. The group will meet at least twice a year until 2014. Carole Souter, chief executive of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: "As well as preparing for the War Memorials Action Group, we're working hard to encourage communities to take more of an interest in protecting their local war memorials. We are delighted to report that we have already commenced very positive joint working with War Memorials Trust to try to ensure anyone who needs advice about war memorials has access to all the information they need and to point them in the right direction for funding. The Sunday Telegraph campaign calls for stronger protection for memorials in the planning system; the prosecution of everyone caught damaging a war memorial; stiffer sentences for those convicted; and tighter laws on scrap metal dealing to deter theft. Already, Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, has promised a "robust" crackdown on metal thieves and has issued guidance to prosecutors to use every tool at their disposal to convict thieves who steal inscriptions from memorials - and fight for them to receive the longest possible sentences. In another boost, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, announced that the government will ban cash payments for scrap metal and remove the £1,000 cap on fines for offences under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act. Since the campaign was launched in November, more than 60 groups, individuals and parish councils have contacted The Sunday Telegraph, expressing concern about the condition of their local memorial. They include one in Stalybridge in Cheshire, on which many of the names of the fallen are no longer visible, and one in Stamford in Lincolnshire, which was demolished when a former brickworks closed down. A couple managed to salvage around two thirds of the pieces but need money to put them back together again. The Sunday Telegraph is working with the HLF and the War Memorials Trust to help the groups get the funding they need and one memorial, featured as part of the campaign, is already on its way to being repaired after generous readers donated the £15,000 needed to rebuild it. The monument in Milton Regis in Kent, was blown down in the Great Storm 1987. Elvie Lowe, a member of the Milton Regis War Memorial Project, said: "We are all completely over the moon and so grateful. We have called a meeting to get things moving and hope to have a digger on site soon. An HLF spokeswoman said: "Prompted both by the approaching series of centenaries to commemorate the events of the First World War and by the resulting campaign by The Sunday Telegraph to improve the condition of war memorials across the UK, the Heritage Lottery Fund has convened a War Memorials Action Group." If you know of a war memorial in your area which is in need of repair, please let us know by emailing warmemorial@telegraph.co.uk or writing to Lest We Forget Campaign, The Sunday Telegraph, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0DT