My family and I would like to add our voices to the plea published on your Letters page by John Marchant (The Argus, May 1), for the war memorial at the Steine to be cleaned thoroughly and properly for the commemoration this year of the First World War.

It received a perfunctory clean for Remembrance Day 2013 but this only resulted in the green stripes seen in his pictures. As the council has just begun a new financial year there must be money available to clean it up properly now?

If it were not for the sacrifice of all those men, none of us would be here today.

We owe it to them to make the memorial a thing that people want to stand and look at.

Marian Burford (granddaughter of WA Radford, named on the memorial), Ringmer Drive, Brighton

I write in response to the letter from Mr Marchant regarding the cleanliness of this war memorial.

As he correctly notes, the leader of the council (and others) have responded to similar queries in the past, on each occasion explaining the regime we deploy to maintain and keep memorials in good condition.

We do indeed have an annual cleaning rota and we also maintain and upkeep the memorials in the city as special occasions occur.

The memorial in central Brighton can look discoloured because of the material it is made of and its proximity to vehicle emissions; we are aware of this and take pains to maintain it appropriately.

The type of stone used in its construction requires special cleaning because it is easily damaged so we do this as infrequently as possible to maintain its fabric and look.

We have a series of events planned to commemorate the start of the First World War (available online) and the memorials across the city will, of course, play an important part as sites of remembrance.

As my grandfather fought in this war, I am keen that we do not forget those events or the people who suffered in them.

Councillor Rob Jarrett, Green, Goldsmid ward, chairman of the Civil Military Partnership Board, Brighton and Hove City Council