EVERY week this seems to go on – individuals writing in to move the war memorial from its place in the Garden of Remembrance, alongside St Mary’s Church, to a new place in the High Street.

Seemingly because it was there in 1956, didn’t you know, and isn’t it a good idea to position it somewhere for all of the drunks to abuse and throw up over on a Saturday night?

I think the war memorial should be left where it is – in a place of grass, trees and peace, where one can sit in quiet contemplation of the brave local servicemen, who gave their lives for this country.

The 1914 to 1920 memorial is not the only memorial in the Garden of Remembrance is it? There’s the memorial to those that fell in World War II as well as a cherry tree planted in memory ‘of child casualties of war, including the Holocaust’. Has all that got to be moved as well or will we have these memorials in separate sites? How much is all this going to cost?

Some advocate that there should be some sort of poll on all this.

Even if a large majority was in favour of moving any memorials someone has to ask whether this is all a priority. There are so many shops closed and so many factory units lying empty now. The town that I love and have lived in all my life has been steadily run into the ground, but somehow, to a small and vocal group of people, uprooting a memorial that is already in a pleasant location is a priority.

My message to council leader Ian Carr and all of his chums is a message that I was told when I was younger – just say no.

Paul Goddard, St Anns Close, Andover