SEVEN years after it was installed on land in Harbour Road, alongside the library, Watchet’s war memorial was formally handed over to the town council by the project group which created it at a moving ceremony last Saturday.

Until now the memorial has been the responsibility of the Watchet Remembrance Project Group (WPRG), created in 2009 with the aim of building a war memorial which commemorated local servicemen who fell in both world wars - something Watchet had never had.

Documents transferring the ownership of the memorial were handed over to the mayor, Cllr John Irven, by the project group’s chairman, retired Major Robert McDonald.

The group, formed from the Royal British Legion, Watchet Town Council and town residents, took five years to raise the £30,000 needed to commission, build and erect the memorial. Members felt it was now time to hand it over to the town council as the group’s major objectives had been achieved.

Full report in today’s Free Press.