Parade to honour forces faces axe

A PARADE to mark Remembrance Day in Benson, which is home to a military base, may be axed next year due to a shortage of volunteers.

The annual event usually attracts around 600 people and is attended by the troops and personnel stationed at RAF Benson.

This year’s parade will go ahead as usual but organisers are warning that it could be the last as volunteers are stepping down due to age and health.

Rob Lovesey, secretary of the Benson branch of the Royal British Legion, said he is “saddened” by the prospect of the parade not going ahead in future.

He said: “It is letting down the memory of the people that made the ultimate sacrifice and that really, to me, is paramount. It quite saddens me in many respects. Being an ex-serviceman and settled in the village, I think that we should honour their memory.

“Being in a village garrison with RAF Benson on our doorstep and many veterans and serving personnel living among us in the Benson community, it would be a very poor show if we didn't carry on with the remembrance parade.

“The RAF supports us massively, with a fly-past and with a marching squad for the parade and also with the RAF police helping us with road closures. It would be very, very sad to see it disappear.

“I know we are not unique in this. A lot of villages and small places and towns and cities up and down the country are suffering the same problems through the lack of volunteers, unfortunately.

“Bearing in mind that we have got recent burials in the churchyard and graveyard from air crew who died in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is not just about the First and Second World Wars.

“We have got a quite modern connection with the armed forces and the sacrifices that these people have made.

“In the last few years we have been punching well above our weight in many respects because we have had either a lord lieutenant or a deputy lord lieutenant be present at the parade.

“For a small village that is quite remarkable. You would expect it of somewhere like Oxford but you wouldn’t expect it of little old Benson.”

Mr Lovesey served in the RAF until 2003 and has been the legion’s branch secretary since 2012. He said the event remains “very poignant” and is an important part of communities.

He said: “I have mates who died in service and it’s a point at that particular time that you remember them as well.

“Considering what’s going on in the world it’s very poignant. Our armed forces, some of them from Benson, are being deployed to the Middle East and to other parts of the world too.

“Like a lot of things, it is to drum up volunteers more than anything else we cannot afford to let this just sort of die off.” Mr Lovesey said remembrance parades are organised by local parish councils due to the need for public liability insurance and the need for road closures.

He said: “The Royal British Legion for several years now are under strict instructions that we’re not allowed to solely set up and run remembrance parades and that will come as a big surprise to people.

“Because we have five roads in and around the Benson war memorial, it requires a number of volunteers to work alongside the RAF police, which help us and support us on it. We have to have volunteers to stand up by them to start up the road closures and at the end of it take them all down as well.

“There’s also a PA system that needs to be managed and looked after and also a safety officer needs to be in place.

“The parish council has now said that unless they get volunteers that come forward, they will not be supporting the parade going forward which means then that it would have to cease.”

Benson Parish Council has said that it is unable to take on the parade itself. In a statement, it said: “The council is simply unable to manage the organisation and running of the whole event without some outside assistance.

“There are still volunteer roles that are needed to ensure that the annual event continues in its current form. If the roles cannot be filled by volunteers, then sadly this year’s parade will be the last.”

One of the “essential” roles is parade safety officer, which requires some experience in risk assessment and risk management, in the lead-up to and running of the event. The council has said training can be provided.

Parish clerk Nicola Copland said the council is asking for helpers. She said: “It was said at the meeting that this year’s will go ahead and we are canvassing for volunteers. So that we can make sure that it's going to be run in future years.

“We strongly believe that it will continue to go ahead but we have got to get the volunteers because it is quite a very multifaceted event.”

Ms Copland said the council needs to 10 volunteers to fill all the roles which also incoude five traffic marshals. To volunteer, email clerk@bensonpc.org.uk