B&NES Council’s wreath is now in place, top right, at the memorial
Members of Keynsham Royal British Legion have reacted angrily to a claim by Bath & North East Somerset Council that they were to blame for the absence the council wreath at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony.
We reported earlier this week that the wreath was conspicuous by its absence from the monument at Memorial Park gates. When we asked the council for an explanation we received no apology but a very blunt statement, claiming it was the Legion’s fault.
However, Fred Bolwell, a former branch chairman and president, told The Week In that the problem was solely down to B&NES Council’s lack of communication.
He said: “Last year B&NES provided their own wreath. This year our poppy organiser rang B&NES to ask if they would require a wreath. The reply was: ‘We’ll get back to you’. They never did.”
He also says a wreath was prepared for the Chairman of the council, just in case, but nobody bothered to ask for it.
“If the B&NES representative had gone to the club before going on parade on Sunday, he or she would have had a wreath to lay at the Memorial Gates,” said Mr Bolwell.
“The Legion have not got the manpower to run around handing out the wreaths to every group or organisation but it would appear that B&NES was the only one not picked up.
“I would like to point out that unlike B&NES councillors, all the Keynsham branch officers are unpaid volunteers.”
B&NES Council’s wreath is now in place at the war memorial, see above, with the message ‘Lest We Forget’.
