I WOULD like to respond to the letter from Bob Roberts regarding the campaign by him and others to move the cenotaph from its place alongside St Mary’s Church, back to the High Street where it was until 1956.

Mr Roberts has compared this campaign to the issue of medals finally being given to UK servicemen who sailed in those perilous convoys to supply our Soviet allies during the Second World War.

I do not think that these issues are really comparable, but has given thought that alongside the cenotaph, there is also a Second World War memorial as well as a cherry tree and a plaque in memory ‘of child casualties of war, including the Holocaust’.

As far as I’m aware, the campaign waged seems to have been solely regarding the 1914 to 1920 cenotaph.

Therefore, I would like to ask Bob Roberts and others if they think all of the memorials should be relocated?

Because surely we cannot treat a memorial to one set of heroes differently to another…can we?

I think that all of these memorials should stay where they are, together in a peaceful green space, although Mr Roberts states that relocation is something that is wanted to happen. A claim that often seems to have been made, and when challenged, the campaigners often then say that the council should organise a poll to find out.

What would a poll involve then? I am assuming to be democratic and legal, the council would organise one involving officer time, along with the production of stationery such as ballot papers. They would also need to organise polling stations in the usual way, along with the paying of staff to be present at them all day long, and also staff to then count the votes.

All of this would cost thousands perhaps tens of thousands of pounds, and this leads me to my final question, who would pay for all of this?

Paul Goddard, St Anns Close, Andover