Military veterans are angered that the coffins of soldiers repatriated from Afghanistan will in future depart from a military base by “the back door”.
The authorities have been accused of trying to hide repatriations as public anger grows at troops’ continued presence in Afghanistan.
For four years Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire has been the focus of tributes to the fallen. Crowds have lined the high street as coffins pass throughfrom RAF Lyneham to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. The spectacle has been seen across the world and earned the town a Royal prefix.
With the pending closure of Lyneham, however, the repatriation of troops is moving at the end of next month to RAF Brize Norton near the garrison town of Carterton, Oxfordshire, where residents say they are being denied the opportunity to replicate the protocols of Wootton Bassett.
Instead of leaving through the main gates of RAF Brize Norton, cortèges will exit via Gate 6, known as “the back door” because of its location at the windswept end of the base. They will then travel over two speed humps, through two chicanes and past a builders’ yard in the hamlet of Brize Norton.
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Then the coffins will be taken along the Carterton ring-road system, avoiding the town centre, and on to the A40 where they will head for the hospital.The plan has prompted internet campaigns, with one e-petition signed by hundreds of people calling for cortèges to travel through the town centre.
John Seath, 73, of Carterton, said that the Ministry of Defence had made a “pathetic and political” decision. “They don’t want to allow it to develop like Wootton Bassett,” he said.
Jenny Burke, whose husband Rod served in the RAF, said that Oxfordshire County Council and Thames Valley Police had claimed that they could not bring the cortèges into town because Thursday, when most repatriations take place, is market day and a main road from the base is closed. But Mrs Burke said: “The market traders feel awful that they are taking the blame for cortèges not coming through town. They would move elsewhere.”
Kevin Hurdman, the chairman of Carterton Market Traders Association, confirmed that they would be happy to clear the road for the cortèges.
Bob Wise, of the local RAF Association branch, said: “I thought it would be better to come out of the main gate. A lot of people in Carterton want to be able to do what Wootton Bassett did.” Peter Madden, the chairman of the Carterton branch of the Royal British Legion, said: “It is not satisfactory.”
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A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said that using Gate 6 would minimise disruption to the base’s operations. A new repatration centre was being built near Gate 6, and using other gates would involve the cortèges travelling over the base’s runway.
The decision was made to ensure that “as well as preserving the dignity and solemnity of military repatriation ceremonies, we are also able to maintain the constant programme of operational deployments and vital supply flights from RAF Brize Norton”.
Oxfordshire County Council — which is building a memorial garden on the ring-road system — said it and Thames Valley Police had decided on the route after Nicholas Gardiner, the Oxfordshire Coroner, said that he did not want a detour to delay cortèges.