A BITTER argument over the timing of Wellington’s Remembrance Sunday parade and ceremony in the town’s park is set to be reignited with a new public consultation.

The service has been held at the War Memorial in the park at 3pm ever since it first took place in 1921, while many other communities hold their ceremonies at 11am at the same time as the Queen attends The Cenotaph.

Now, town councillors will be asked at a meeting on Monday to approve a second consultation in three years over the choice of either 11am or 3pm. Whatever the outcome, this year’s event on November 13 will remain at 3pm and if any change was to result it would not happen until 2023.

A move to change the Wellington event to 11am was promoted by then-Wellington Mayor Gary James in 2018-19. Strongly worded arguments were voiced by individuals and organisations both for and against the change, revealing a deep split in the community.

Town councillors who had been considering the proposal therefore decided to keep the status quo. Now, a group of veterans in the town and Royal British Legion Wellington branch chairman Robert Trickey have asked for the issue to be reconsidered.

Town clerk Dave Farrow met them earlier this year and was told they felt Wellington ‘diminishes the event’ by holding it at 3pm and it would be more fitting to have it ‘at the 11th hour’.

Mr Farrow said: “At present they do not participate in the parade or ceremony, preferring instead to hold their own event at 11am in Rockwell Green cemetery.”

He said when the issue was last considered three years ago the council conducted a wide public consultation through the winter before receiving a summary of the feedback.

Mr Farrow said: “My summary of the feedback is that the most significant objections to changing the time come from the churches and a concern that morning services would be affected.

“Those aside, there are as many comments supporting a change as opposing it.”

Mr Farrow said the RBL chairman would support either keeping the event at 3pm or changing it to 11am.

Mr James, who stood down from the council in 2019, told the Wellington Weekly this week: “We do not want to partition the town, but the majority of veterans who support the Remembrance Sunday service believe it should be celebrated at 11am with the monarch and the nation.

“I personally believe we should be doing the same. Just because it has been going on like this since 1921 does not mean it has to continue like that.

“I think for the majority of people, to be able to turn out and mark the occasion with the monarch and the rest of the country at the same time would be commendable.”