Honour the covenant

I put forward a motion to full council on Wednesday:

"That this Council believes that as a community we should be acknowledging the Military Covenant that exists between the State, the public and those members of the armed forces who we call upon to defend our interests. We resolve that as a tangible acknowledgement and as a way of supporting the Royal British Legion's call to Honour the Covenant, that this Council as a gesture of gratitude will grant serving regular and reserves forces personnel and their direct dependents who live in or who are visiting the Metropolitan District free access to WMDC's leisure facilities".


The Labour group forced through an amendment and deferred it to next year "with the intention of looking at widening the scope"

My comments are attached.

Press Release

“Honouring the Covenant”.

Following today’s Council meeting, Cllr Geoff Walsh, Pontefract South said he was saddened that the Labour controlling group voted down his proposal to extend free use of council leisure facilities to serving members of the armed forces who we call upon to defend our interests.

“The Labour decision to defer the proposal until the new year to look at widening the scope of the motion to look at the costs of including the emergency services as well as the armed forces may well yet return a positive outcome, but it could equally be a tactic to kick the idea into the long grass by developing such a costly and complex proposal that the scheme will become unworkable”.

“I saw this as a none political motion supporting the Royal British Legions campaign to honour the covenant where we could at least hope for consensus in supporting our armed forces, I am hopeful that the motion will be voted through at a not too distant point, though if the Labour Group are hoping for it to go away, this will not happen”.

“Prior to putting the motion forward, I spoke to a number of members of the public and members of the armed forces and received unanimous support. It is clear that there is growing public support for a greater emphasis on honouring the covenant of care to our troops and I remain of the view that this idea was a useful way of showing our appreciation at a local level. The costs involved would have been minimal and the feedback I have received indicated that the concession would have been greatly appreciated”.

Cllr Walsh concluded “I still intend to see this through and hope that the feasibility study provides support for the motion.