With last months Armed Forces Day events taken place across the country and Fully Supported by local councils, where whole communities come together and showed their support for the Country’s Armed Forces fighting on their behalf around the world, Merton Council appear to be making no effort in assisting or supporting a local group of ex servicemen to hold the event for 2011 in Merton.

For the last year, a group of ex servicemen from Haig Homes in Morden (The biggest ex service community in Britain) have been pressing your council to make a commitment to hold this event in Morden Park on Saturday 25th June 2011 to no avail.

“Chris Lee the Director of environment for Merton Council openly admitted in a meeting that he knew nothing of or about the Armed Forces Day”, and then decided in favour of the Park and Ride for the All England Lawn Tennis rather than supporting the Armed Forces Day.

However the biggest let down are the very council we have just elected. While we were assisting their election before May 6th, they couldn’t be more vocal, but now they have been elected we hear a different tune. They have choose to ignore and cancel meetings, failed to announce they were to raise the AFD Flag on the 26th or to put invites out for the serving and ex serving members of this borough to attend.

The flag raising appears to have been an after thought and an attempt of damage limitation, knowing that the ex service community were becoming more concerned, and wanting to see whether the residents of Merton thought the same as the council by advertising in the media.

Our local MP has recently attacked the Police for putting the All England Tennis above the community; though the Labour ran Council are doing exactly the same. It appears to be double standards and only when it suits.

Do you believe the Armed Forces Day should go ahead or not?

Paul McDonnell Ex Royal Artillery and Local correspondent