THE organisers behind Wimborne’s Remembrance Day parade have hit back at those “very vocal in complaining” at this year’s event, calling on them to help out next year.

Wimborne Town Council and The Royal British Legion were slammed for “cancelling” this year’s parade, on Sunday, November 14.

Chairman of the council, Cllr Kelly Webb, said: “Contrary to comments made on social media at no time has the Town Council banned or cancelled a Remembrance parade.

“There was £1,500 in the Town Council’s budget this year to pay for all the necessary costs associated with Remembrance including road closures and marshals, the same as previous years.”

The Legion and council before the parade announced the event would be “scaled back” to ensure “safety of all”.

Claims were then made that the Royal British Legion received several “abusive” phone calls after the council “cancelled” the parade.

A statement from the Legion following Remembrance Day said: “Since Remembrance Sunday there have been a few people querying why there wasn’t a parade.

“As you know, the branch is run by volunteers and the planning of all activities for November starts in the previous January.

“This includes contacting over 20 local organisations, meetings with the Town Council, risk assessment and liaising with the Minster regarding the service – the list is endless.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to start our planning this year until June and at that time the capacity in the Minster was reduced from the usual 600 plus to 120.

“We agreed with the Town Council to therefore have a smaller, but still proper Remembrance Sunday and we can confirm that the Town Council did not ban or cancel the parade.

“We, like many charities, have suffered, not only financially, but with the number of members and in particular with volunteers to assist with the large amount of planning for both Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.

“As a rough calculation about 300 hours of meetings and work is needed. So we need more people to come forward to help, in particular those who were very vocal in complaining there was no parade.

“We will be approaching those first to help. Without new volunteers for our branch committee it is unlikely there will be a parade next year.”