THE 12 town councillors who refuse to rename a play area after fallen Epping Marine Georgie Sparks have been slammed by the chairman of the district council.
After 19-year-old Georgie was killed in November during a Taliban attack while serving in Afghanistan, Epping town mayor Ben Murphy offered to rename the newly-redeveloped play area at Stonards Hill after Georgie in his honour.
His grieving parents Toni and Wayne accepted the proposal and told their son’s former comrades, many of whom pledged to attend the renaming ceremony. But, much to their dismay, the offer was vetoed by the other councillors.
Dozens of people wrote to the Guardian and hundreds have joined an online campaign to persuade the councillors to change their minds, but they insist they will not.
And when Epping Forest District Council honoured Georgie at their annual civic awards ceremony, its chairman John Knapman departed from his prepared script to condemn the town council’s decision.
He said: “The small-minded people who do not think we should rename the park in Georgie’s memory do not represent all of us. I just feel that the people of Britain have a covenant that we will remember them if they fall in battle. Who was Stonard? What did he do? There’s an element of downgrading here which I am not comfortable with.”
He also criticised the town council for excluding the press and public from its meetings over how to honour Georgie, and his impassioned speech and that of Georgie’s father Wayne moved the packed room at Woolston Manor to a standing ovation.
After the Guardian started a campaign to persuade the town council to rethink their decision, Wayne and Georgie’s mother Toni were offered a plaque in honour of their son. But they feel this is not enough and have vowed to keep fighting for the park in Georgie’s name.
Mrs Sparks said: “We told Ben Murphy we were not happy with the decision and we would continue to fight for the park’s name to be changed and he said ‘go for it’.”
The family were also interviewed by the BBC this week and, despite the issue being in the public eye both locally and nationally for at least a month, Epping town clerk Bob Whittome has asked the family to write to him to formally request that the play area be renamed after their son, ahead of the next town council meeting on April 10.
Mrs Sparks said: “I do not think we need to write in again, we’ve had so much support for this. Georgie was such a private boy, he wouldn’t have wanted any of this, its so hard because he wouldn’t want this to have happened.
“We need to keep Georgie going, we need to speak about him. Everybody goes on about the younger generation hanging out on the streets and getting into trouble, Georgie was a beautiful brave young man.”
We asked Epping Town Council clerk Bob Whittome to comment but he declined, adding: “I’m not willing to discuss these matters. Unless my council specifically instructs me to speak I will not discuss it with anyone from the Guardian.”
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