A Remembrance Sunday parade that has taken place every year since the First World War has been cancelled amid claims of health and safety issues.
Veterans and the local community in Upton, on the Wirral, Merseyside, have been left outraged after the event, held to commemorate soldiers from the town who died in the First and Second World Wars, was scaled back to just a wreath-laying.
The local British Legion branch said they had appealed to the local council for help on paying public liability insurance, and asked the police to assist with road closures.
But they claimed the council cited the car-ramming attack on Liverpool FC’s Premier League victory parade on May 26 as a reason to be cautious.
And Merseyside Police told them that the police were not responsible for traffic management or the escort of parades.
Parade ‘out of our hands’
The Legion branch, which has only four active members, claimed a Wirral council official wrote in a letter: “If we sound a bit pedantic on this, just following incidents like the one at the Liverpool parade, we need to keep everyone safe.
“If the police were still in attendance, they have the powers to do a rolling road block and, of course, can arrest anyone who is causing trouble, but local authorities do not have any of these powers, so we have to mitigate against anything happening.”
Wendy Meade, the branch secretary, told their supporters that delivery of the parade was “out of our hands”.
David Burgess-Joyce, a Reform UK election candidate and former chief officer of Merseyside Police Special Constabulary, said: “We cannot stand by and allow bureaucracy and disinterest to cancel this most important national day, be it at the Whitehall cenotaph in London or the smallest local British Legion.
“If it stops now, it will stop again in the future. We must remember those who made our country safe.”
One local said: “Upton has held a Remembrance Day parade since the end of the First Wold War without any problem,” while another said: “We should all turn up and do this march. This is absolutely heartbreaking and disgusting, and most of all disrespectful.”
Simon Weston, the Welsh Guardsman badly burned in the sinking of the Sir Galahad during the Falklands War, said the decision to scale back the parade was “very odd”.
Mr Weston, a prominent commentator on veterans’ issues and involved with the Royal British Legion in Devon, added: “If they are making it based on Liverpool, that’s just wrong. They are two different areas. I don’t think Liverpool has any bearing on it all.
“We can’t cancel everything for fear that someone might do something. We would just be cowering in our homes.”
Council ‘worked with organisers’
Chief Insp Rob Budden, of Merseyside Police, said that the police had supported traffic management at previous parades, despite national policy for the policing of pre-planned events stating that the organiser, and not the police, was responsible.
However, they said they are now forced to move in line with this guidance, as “the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing stressed that policing should not take responsibility for closing roads or managing traffic, other than in an emergency”.
A spokesman for Wirral council said: “After the council was made aware that the police would no longer be facilitating road closures or providing police escorts for Remembrance events as in previous years, the council has worked with organisers across the borough to enable them to still take place.”
The spokesman said the council offered to waive road closure fees for the Upton service, one of eight that take place in Wirral, however it required confirmation that organisers “had in place risk assessment and public liability insurance”, as the council cannot fund insurance for a non-council event.
The spokesman added: “Wirral council remains committed to supporting community-led events and regrets that the Upton parade could not proceed this year. We are confident that, had the necessary information been provided, we would have been able to assist in facilitating a safe and respectful event.”
A spokesman for the Royal British Legion said: “The Royal British Legion is grateful for all the support received from local authorities and police forces to ensure Remembrance parades can take place, which mean so much to the Armed Forces community.
“Parades are happening across the Wirral, but due to administrative reasons, this was not possible this year in Upton, so locals are being encouraged to attend others nearby. Hopefully, this will be resolved so it can go ahead next year.”
