IT HAS been announced in the Autumn Statement that Wellington Monument will receive a share of LIBOR funds. 

The monument will be given £1 million to put towards urgent repairs. 

The National Trust has been working to restore the monument alongside MP for Taunton Deane Rebecca Pow. 

The money will come from £102 million worth of banking fines that government has committed to support Armed Forces, Emergency Services, charities and other related good causes. 

Andy Semple, assistant director of operations for the trust in Somerset & Gloucestershire, said: "This is an incredible start to our fundraising. We have been working hard over the past year to understand why the structure is deteriorating and to talk to local people about why it’s so important to them. 

"It will be 200 years next October since the foundation stone was laid and today’s news is hopefully an important step in safeguarding the Monument for the next 200 years for the benefit of the nation."

Rebecca Pow, MP for Taunton Deane, said: "I am absolutely thrilled that the National Trust has been awarded £1 million of Libor funding for the restoration of our much loved Wellington Monument.

"For more than a year I have been working with the National Trust and the whole community on the campaign to restore the Monument and over the last week I have been stepping up the pressure.  I have personally stressed to both the Chancellor and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury the importance of this commemorative structure internationally, nationally and crucially locally making it clear just what it would  mean to see it restored to its full former glory.

"The awarding of these funds is testament to the hard work of the National Trust, the thousands of people who signed my parliamentary petition, the newly crowned local monument champions and everyone else who has shown support for the cause."

This funding gives the project a boost before the next step for the National Trust. It will submit its first round application to the Heritage Lottery Fund in a couple of week’s time towards the £3million still needed to raise for the project to go ahead.