FURTHER to the recent letters from people who want the war memorial moved back to the High Street – including another rambling from Russell Tarrant – I reiterate my views, although they have been printed before in previous years.

I speak as the stepmother of a serving soldier, and the widow of an ex-Royal Hampshire Corporal. Every year, I attend the Armistice Day service and parade, as do many Andover residents. The service is always very touching and proof that we do ‘remember them’.

The memorial was moved to the church gardens in 1956 – another era, when Andover was indeed a small, market town, with the Guildhall carrying out its proper function as Andover’s Town Hall.

However the council saw fit to remove it to the church gardens as it was deemed a more suitable setting for memorial services to be held.

Nowadays, with a pizza restaurant in the Guildhall – therefore signage and furniture outside it – the old shops gone, and boy racers tearing round the High Street at night, it is a very unsuitable place for a memorial to Andover’s lost heroes.

In addition, with the lack of police on the beat, a memorial by the Guildhall is very likely to be vandalised.

I, and many other residents I have spoken to, believe that St Mary’s Church gardens is the best place for both our war memorials.

Irene Williams, Heath Vale, Andover.