Stewart Dobson, Marlborough town council’s Tory group leader, has been admonished by leading fellow councillors for challenging its hospitality expenditure on civic dinner tickets for military intelligence soldiers returning from Afghanistan.
Appalled, shocked, embarrassing, sad were some of the epithets fellow councillors used in describing his challenge of offering hospitality to the event that last year raised £1,000 for Help the Hero’s and other military charities.
And after hurling flack at Councillor Dobson, they endorsed and approved unanimously a report prepared by Councillor Andrew Ross, the accountant chairman of the Finance and Policy Committee.
This revealed that inviting four officers and 20 non-commissioned officers from 4MI Battalion as guests at the town hall dinner last year resulted in a “loss” of £1,100.
“To suggest that all councillors should be able to enjoy jollies with the Battalion as part of the relationship is not the case with 4MI Battalion,” said in his specially prepared report.
And deputy mayor Guy Loosmore, a former member of the Tory group, declared: “It is deeply sad that the challenge is based on what he (Councillor Dobson) got out of our association with soldiers risking their lives in Afghanistan.”
“It is a kind of personalised opinion – Why haven’t I been invited to this or that? To put measurements like that in such a situation is appalling.”
The debate – Councillor Dobson sent his apologies for not attending the committee meeting – came within hours of the council staging its most momentous Remembrance Day parade in which up to 1,000 people took part at Marlborough’s war memorial.
Next week’s civic dinner honouring the Military Intelligence Battalion, based at Bulford, will be the fourth organised by the town council, tickets always being sold for the event and any “loss” paid for out of the council’s £3,500 Civic Hospitality budget.
Newly-co-opted Val Compton told the meeting: “As a new councillor what I find very, very embarrassing is that the longest-standing member of the council could actually think about what he was going to get out of this sort of relationship.”
Councillor Ross opened the meeting by pointing out that the issue had be originally raised in a part two “secret” part of the committee’s agenda, Councillor Dobson threatening to raise the matter at a full open council meeting unless it was addressed.
He had taken advice and decided to debate the demand in open session, adding: “Many of us were taken back by the issues he raised.”
He pointed out the hospitality budget used by the mayor had so far spent only modest amounts of £140 and £150 entertaining representatives of the Crown Estates and guests at the visit of the Duchess of Cornwall to unveil the council’s plaque to commemorate the Queen’s diamond jubilee.
His report stated that the relationship with the 4MI Battalion was made in 2008 mayoralty year of Councillor Peggy Dow, the civic dinner being introduced the following year when Councillor Nick Fogg was mayor, the council subsequently granting the Battalion the freedom of Marlborough.
“It (the dinner) is a council sponsored event rather than a mayoral event,” the report added. “It was theme to acknowledge the contribution the armed forces make at a time when this country is at war.”
“The guests of honour were a selection of personnel from the 4MI Battalion who have just returned from a tour of duty on active service in Afghanistan. As a corp Battalion, there are constantly soldiers on active service which could amount to a third of their number.”
Councillor Dobson had stated that this relationship “compared unfavourably with that which the town enjoyed with HMS Marlborough and that there were possibly only certain councillors to the exclusion of other councillors who were benefiting from Battalion hospitality.”
And Councillor Ross told the committee: “I don’t know what we shall do when the Afghanistan war is over. Many of us feel minded that it is such a splendid occasion that we may wish to continue it, perhaps to achieve something special.”
The Mayor, Councillor Edwina Fogg, who had placed the first poppy wreath on the war memorial the day before, stressed what a splendid occasion the event had been “and how proud we were to have the Battalion’s presence” and the opportunity to meet the wives and families of the soldiers.
“We have built up this relationship in the way Wootton Bassett did in honouring soldiers returning from the wars,” she added. “And for me, this is of such a tremendous value to the town.”
Councillor Peggy Dow protested: “I am appalled by this suggestion from Councillor Dobson. It is so out of order.”
Councillor Nick Fogg declared: “Like everyone else, I am genuinely shocked by this suggestion.”
He recalled how privileged Marlborough was as the only town in Wiltshire to have been approached by the Battalion in seeking to have “roots in the county and the community.”
“I think the issue really is that it is easier to honour the dead for some people than it is to honour the living,” he added. “I have checked the facts and both in 1918 and in 1945 we had civic dinners for every single person who returned from the wars.”
“This war in Afghanistan has gone on longer than both the first and second world wars put together. We know the sacrifices our soldiers have made. It would be churlish not to honour those who have returned, the living soldiers, just as they did in Wootton Bassett for the dead.”
“I am really speechless about this…”
Councillor Richard Pitts said: “If we don’t do this sort of thing, this war is just going to be brushed under the carpet. We must be thankful that the Afghanistan opposition don’t have long range bombers because they would be using them against us.”
“We have to thank people like 4Military Intelligence for that, for keeping them in the box. And we should do everything we can to honour them.”
He revealed too how his teacher wife Judy had been confronted by Year 5 pupils seeking to discuss the Queen’s role in war during her jubilee celebrations and how two female soldiers from the Battalion had visited the class.
“They brought all their kit, allowed the kids to dress up and every question was answered without winching, one of the hard ones being ‘Have you shot anyone?’” he said.
“As a result of that Judy’s day was absolutely fantastic. The co-operation between 4Military and the community is phenomenal.”
Members of the public can attend the civic dinner, tickets cost £35 for the event at Marlborough town hall on November 23 (7 for 7.30pm)
Phone town council office on 01672 512487
A seat on Marlborough’s Green unveiled in tribute to legendary war hero gentleman Jim
