THE 60th anniversary of the ending of World War Two will be commemorated in Williton by the installation of a set of picnic tables in the Memorial Ground. The ground is already a dedicated memorial to the dead of both world conflicts and plans are in the pipeline to put up a commemorative plaque when the shelter destroyed by arson earlier this year is repaired. But parish councillors agreed this week that four picnic tables would be sited across the ground - two in the children's play area - as another tribute to the special anniversary. The move was opposed by two councillors - Liz Peeks and Diane Hooper. The idea of having picnic tables was suggested in a questionnaire at the village's recent 'planning for real' day, when local people had the chance to have their say on the future development and improvement of the area. But Cllr Derek Howells, one of the organisers of the event, told the council's meeting on Monday that the results of the 141 responses had yet to be analysed. Cllr Peeks said, as the council had yet to see the results, pushing ahead with one of the suggestions before knowing exactly what people's views were, was unwise. "I feel we are jumping the gun and to make the results credible we should really have 250 questionnaires returned - ten per cent of our population. "We need to get up to that figure and we could hold the planning for real event again at the village fete. "I don't disagree with the idea of picnic tables but we don't know where people would like to see them." But Cllr Howells insisted that sometimes councillors had to make decisions. "As for re-running the event, we could become a bit like a banana republic, keeping on asking people the same question until we get the answer we want," he said. "If people didn't come along on the day, then that's their fault." Cllr Peeks said, if the event was held again, she believed the results could be added together - an idea rejected by other councillors. And Cllr Peter Cleere said local people were becoming punch drunk and fed up over consultation because nothing was ever done as a result of it. Cllr Angela Bray said surely it was acceptable to put up picnic tables to mark the ending of World War Two. "It's not going to hurt anyone and at least we will be doing something positive." But Cllr Hooper, although not against the idea of the picnic tables, was concerned that the council was spending money at an alarming rate and that cash set aside for the changing rooms project was dwindling away. Cllr Peeks said it was important that the council knew how much would be spent on the tables, what they would be made of and where they were going to be put. But Cllr Bill Gulliford said: "We need to get on with it - let's just get our finger out and do it."
