I READ with interest (and a wry smile) the minutes of last week’s Andover Town Council (ATC) meeting. I wasn’t there, but from what was recorded, it was a rather lively affair.

In all seriousness, it appears to have sadly lacked the decorum such events should command, eliciting what I would think was an unprecedented statement from the chair following the conclusion of the meeting.

Once again, this was not a good advert for devolved local government, and ATC in particular.

More worrying, as far as I am concerned, was the news from Cllr Zilliah Brooks that the poppy planting, planned as part of an national event to commemorate this year’s 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, is still not organised!

The (rather short) list of planned events seems to be dwindling even further as we race towards the 4 August, and if ATC are not careful, it will be down to just a football match... if they can even manage to organise that!

The anniversary wasn’t even on the agenda, so I’m guessing that there is going to be little else coming out of the town council anytime soon. How much more criticism do both our councils need before they do something about the embarrassing dearth of events planned to commemorate this important occasion?

Their lack of interest is all made the worse for Andover being a military town.

Mark Brown The Avenue Andover