'Dumped' war memorial left in disrepair as veterans fear council 'just ticking boxes' to remember war dead
Bungling contractors tried and failed to move the memorial last December
IWM/MIKE JACKSON
A "disgraceful" and "undignified" botched attempt to relocate a war memorial has left residents and veterans in uproar at their local council.
The Avon Tyres Company memorial in Melksham, Wiltshire, had stood outside Avon Tyres's successor firm Cooper Tire and Rubber Company's factory for years.
But when it closed down last December, bungling contractors tried and failed to move it.
Melksham Town Council had planned to rescue the memorial, which contains an honour roll of 102 tyre company employees who died in the World Wars.
At an economic development and planning committee meeting in January, councillors agreed to transfer it to storage before a decision was made on where to relocate it.
The monument to 102 men who gave their life for Britain has been left jutting out of the grassIWM/MIKE JACKSONHowever, when movers tried to shift the memorial - a copper "book" on a stone plinth - they found it to be "more substantial than expected".
As a result, the monument has been left jutting out of the grass outside the former Cooper Tire and Rubber Company buildings for months, gathering dust and shrouded in orange plastic fencing.
Mike Jackson, who served for six years in the Army's Duke of Edinburgh's Royal Regiment, said leaving the memorial in its current state was "disgraceful".
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The monument has been left gathering dust and shrouded in orange plastic fencing
MIKE JACKSON
The veteran said: "We've got Remembrance Sunday coming up.
"It almost makes you feel like they're just ticking boxes when they celebrate the day - because the rest of the year they don't seem to care.
"This is a monument to the workers who gave their lives during the wars, and it's just been dumped onto the grass with no due care or attention. It's undignified."
The memorial bears the names of 102 factory employees who died in the two World Wars
IWM
Jackson has said he would like to see the monument relocated to his current workplace: Avon Protection, which owned Avon Tyres before it was sold to Cooper.
But the council has indicated its plans are to move it to a local garden.
A spokesman from the authority said: "Unfortunately, when contractors attempted to remove the memorial from the ground, it was embedded with a more substantial base than was expected.
"Matters are in hand to relocate the memorial to the Queen Mary Garden so that it remains on view to former Cooper Tire and Rubber Company employees and the public, until Melksham Town Council makes a decision on its final location."
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