City council criticised for failing to look after memorial wreaths at Morecambe Cenotaph

David Hodgson from the RAF Association in Morecambe took photos at the cenotaph showing wreaths strewn across the pavement following a period of bad weather.

And although the city council said they had since gone to secure the wreaths, he said they continued to be unsafe, and accused the council of 'staging' their photograph of a neat cenotaph.

Mr Hodgson said he has asked to work with the city council to produce a secure method of retaining the wreaths in place but said his attempts "have been rebuffed" and his questions "firmly ignored".

He said: "This is a council that has signed the Armed Forces Charter, whilst entirely disregarding it and showing scant regard to our war dead.

"The photo could almost be described as staged in that after I had taken the wreaths to the White Lund depot for safekeeping they were returned to the cenotaph on the day of the photograph where a few were secured by a wire running through them, whilst the majority were left unattached on the steps."

A spokesman for Lancaster City Council said: “The city council has the utmost respect for our fallen service personnel and the wreaths have all been tethered using a wire cord in order to have the least impact on the setting and integrity of the memorial.

"They are also inspected on a regular basis and re-secured if required, as this is an extremely windy location and the wreaths are very light in weight. We are looking at further options in an effort to make improvements to the way they are secured.”