War Memorials Fixed Asset List

Question

Good afternoon

Advice please

We have a very large stone war memorial in our churchyard.  The parish council own this and are responsible for its up keep
On checking our asset list completed by our retired clerk it is valued at £1.00 nominal.  I am assuming this is actually incorrect and the true value should be added to asset list for insurance purposes
Advice please
thank you
ann

Answer 1

Most war memorials were funded by public subscription, so it may not have cost the parish council anything. Like anything funded by public subscription, it has no owner, so many parish councils have adopted their memorials and pay for their upkeep. To acknowledge ownership, a nominal price of £1 is recorded in the asset register. If any restoration work is carried out, apart from routine maintenance and cleaning, the cost of that could be added.

Comments

Brilliant - thanks Dave

---

I agree with everything that DavetheClerk as said.  Its worth adding that FOR INSURANCE PURPOSES you should have a realistic estimate of what it would cost to replace were it vandalised or accidentally damaged/demolished.

---

Yes, and I dread to think how much it would cost to replace a war memorial. That would also open a can of worms regarding subsequent conflicts.

---

Just been through such a case ie installing new war memorial  . PC have powers to maintain war memorials but not to fund them .   The former exists because originating committees often disappear.   I made sure that our committee led by some some Parish Councillors (which had its origins in the local British Legion Branch) signed up to ongoing maintenance and provided funds for the same. We shall see.

Answer 2

Assets always used to be listed at original acquisition cost or, in the case of land, at £0. Our internal auditor advised us some years ago to use £1 as the nominal land value and to have an "insured value" for items that are listed in the Risk Register and not self-insured. There is a serious twist to the £0 land valuations - South Cambridgeshire DC has still been unable to complete its 2017/8 audit since, on moving from a spreadsheet to a database for its asset register, it discovered that a piece of land had actually been sold for £200,000 leading to the need to re-appraise several hundred other pieces of land which had also been sold off. Pragmatism is needed on war memorials - how likely is it to be damaged, how expensive any repair, and would the public accept a special subscription of some form?

Comments

thank you for your response   Appreciate your comments