Vale war memorial campaigners fight to keep it in place
Wednesday 18th May 2011, 2:29PM BST.
Bernie Coutu, left, and Alison Torode at the Vale War Memorial. The pair are petitioning to keep the memorial at the current site. Neither of them put the ‘Hands Off!’ signs there. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 1136865)
TODAY is D-Day for the future of Vale war memorial and campaigners are urging anyone who wants it to stay where it is to attend tonight’s parish meeting.
Parishioners will decide tonight whether the monument should be moved to a new home away from busy traffic. Planners have given approval for the memorial, at the junction of Vale Avenue, Braye Road, Croft Lane, Route des Coutures and Summerfield Road, to be re-sited at the Douzaine Room. But campaigners against the plans will tonight hand in a petition with more than 200 signatures to the parish officials.
A handmade sign proclaiming ‘Hands Off!’ was recently placed at the site and campaigner Bernie Coutu, who did not make the sign, urged parishioners who wanted to see the monument remain there to attend tonight’s meeting.
‘We want to see as many people there as possible,’ she said.
‘We have had loads of signatures and loads of support and we want to see it stay where it is.’
* The meeting, at the douzaine room, starts at 7.30pm.
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Is moving this not just a big ole’ waste of money….again!?
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Hi.
Why is the move necessary?
Whilst theyre about it, lets move the one at Manor Stores, St. Julians Ave, Trafalgar Sq and The Albert Mem!!
Hell, whilst theyre at it, lets move Cornet Castle too!!!!
What a waste of time, effort and money!
But then again, this aint really new news is it?
GD.
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@starscream
There is a lot more to this issue that the cost, which I believe if carried out would be the responsibility of the Parish Douzaine?
This monument was sited where it is to initialy honour those Vale parishioners who died in what was known as The Great War – WW1; at the time it was not of course at a busy junction of non stop daily traffic. Countless people have for almost 100 years paid their respects, later on to be joined by others remembering those who died in WW2.
To resite it to the front of a relatively modern Douzaine Room would in my view be very wrong. What is wrong in closing the junction to traffic for a couple of hours on Rememberance Sundays? Road closures happen almost daily around our Island for one reason or another and, we find ways around that. People at other times are able to park with relative ease in the immediate area, I have yet to hear of an RTA occuring as the result of people crossing roads to visit the Memorial. Traditions and traditional sites are swiftly giving way to cope with modern perpective and times. The Memorial should not be one of them.
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@gsydonkee – Too late, they’ve already moved the war memorial opposite Manor Stores.
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Gsydonkee,
Yeah ! Let’s also move the one at Manor Stores. Er, where is it exactly? Well, actually, it was moved to the St Martins Parish Hall some years ago for the same reason the Vale is looking to move theirs. Keep up !
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Get really real, talk to your families, all of you: None of you have experienced a war, I honestly hope you never do.
I suspect that your only current turmoils are how to stop your false overlong eyelashes falling off,leaving glue dribbles on the surface of cheap facial tan products, or how to keep your underpants from really,really falling down, and then sustain a the total peer group embargo, because you still wear Calvins. I have long standing family in the Vale Parish and understand how much this memorial means to your Grans and Grandpas, get talking to them and you may understand why it is so important.
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