Croydon Council’s press office, having forgotten to include any reference to this weekend’s Remembrance Sunday ceremonies in its autumn edition of the quarterly, Council Tax-payer-funded Your Croydon magazine, managed to put out a press release detailing the civic arrangements for tomorrow’s solemn ceremonies – but not until gone 4pm yesterday.
That will have been far too late for the print deadline of the out-of-borough newspapers that are distributed around Croydon.
The apparent oversights – for Remembrance events – are as if the council doesn’t want the public to know about, or attend, the civic ceremonies on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which brought an end to World War I.
Around 2,500 personnel from Croydon died in the industrialised carnage that was WWI between 1914 and 1918.
The Remembrance Sunday services are intended as a solemn memorial event for all those who have lost their lives on military duty during conflicts in the 20th and 21st centuries.
There will be a Remembrance Sunday service at Croydon Minster, starting at 10.55am tomorrow. Those attending are asked to be seated by 10.45am.
After the service, there will be a parade along North End to the war memorial outside the Town Hall, where wreaths of poppies will be laid. It is expected that around 600 people from various groups, including military units and the Royal British Legion, will take part in the parade. It will depart from outside Marks and Spencer on North End at around 12.10pm.
The council’s press office has failed to distribute any information on other Remembrance Day services and ceremonies in Croydon.
Elsewhere in and around the borough, the convention is being observed of wreath-laying and a two-minute silence at 11am – the 11th hour, of the 11th day of the 11th month, when in 1918 the guns finally fell silent after four years of war.
Wreath-laying ceremonies are expected to take place at the war memorials on the Purley Way, close to the former RAF base at Croydon Aerodrome, and at the former RAF Kenley.
In Old Coulsdon, the Remembrance Service is being held at St John’s Church at 10am, followed by wreath-laying for the fallen at the Coulsdon War Memorial.
At Crystal Palace, Bromley councillor Marina Ahmad will represent the borough at the wreath-laying ceremony at the Upper Norwood War Memorial, Westow Street from 10.30am.
And in Streatham, at the Albert Carr Gardens War Memorial, on the corner of the High Road and Streatham Common Northside, the ceremonials will begin from 10.30am.
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Utterly disgraceful, and Brother Newman cannot blame government cutbacks on this! It just shows what agenda he, Butler and “”bully” Scott are working off. Once again, well done Inside Croydon for their vigilance by reporting this.
It’s about time we had an Independent, democratically elected, Mayor of Croydon, to keep these greenhorn Councillors in check. We have an elected Mayor of London, now lets have an elected Mayor of Croydon.
Never under-estimate Croydon Council officials’ capacity for incompetence, David.
Great comment. But it wasn’t always like that!!!!