IN reply to Mr Somers-Cocks and Mr Hawke regarding our Cenotaph, I’m not sure if you are aware that five years ago I started a petition along with Russell and Paul to have our Cenotaph returned to the High Street.

We had a stall on the High St markets and were quickly joined by Elizabeth Hobbins MBE, Mike Hobbins MBE, a senior member of the local British Legion and his wife, Max Barnikel and Craig Fisher to form a committee of which I was chairman.

Over a 15-month period we managed to obtain 7,000 signatures.

In this time we had proof of regular drug parties and graffiti on memorial plaques within the vicinity of the Cenotaph.

We discovered there are no CCTV cameras or regular police patrols within that part of the graveyard. We discovered through a stonemason that the Cenotaph itself is easy to dismantle and reassemble and every military person that visited our stall offered their free time and skill to help move it.

We discovered the majority of the public who signed the petition were willing to donate towards the move. We discovered there were no obstacles underground in the High St to prevent it being returned. We discovered the only reason given repeatedly was that drunks might urinate on it if it was returned to the High St, although there are CCTV cameras in use.

We discovered that no Conservative councillor on either TVBC or Andover Council signed the petition.

We discovered the local Royal British Legion had voted to support us. We discovered we were labelled a pressure group and had to relinquish our stall. We discovered that the public meeting held by the town council initially reached a majority vote to return the Cenotaph before the questions were reworded with the result being a 50-50 vote according to the chairman.

We discovered when we presented ourselves to TVBC’s cabinet that only two of the councillors represented the five wards of the Parish of Andover. In our 10 minute allotted time at this meeting our spokesperson argued that only personnel representing Andover Parish should be able to make a decision on the Cenotaph being returned. His request fell on deaf ears and one by one the cabinet came up with their own individual reasons for not returning it, including one saying he would not know how to explain it to his grandson!

We know the Cenotaph is a covenant belonging to the people of the Parish of Andover and TVBC are only the guardians because Andover Borough Council was dissolved, The covenant should now be handed back to Andover Town Council!

I have learnt from these proceedings and have now gathered a new younger generation of would-be politicians whose sentiments towards the return of the Cenotaph are the same as mine. In time they will be elected as Conservative councillors and will be constructive in returning the Cenotaph to the High St.

The war memorial (Cenotaph) was illegally moved in 1956 by the Andover Borough Council using the wrong Act of Parliament because they wanted to extend the Guildhall.

All our evidence was gathered from the Advertiser and the minutes of ABC from the 1950s at the Archives Winchester and of course the local people of Andover. ‘OUT of SIGHT, OUT of MIND’.

Ron Wood, Bridge Street, Andover