A row has broken out between Thanet Labour and Reform councillors over the siting of a political street stall near the war memorial in Broadstairs.
Members of Reform UK had a banner and stall at the site last Friday to talk to passers-by about local issues and the group’s policies.
But Labour’s Cllr Kristian Bright says it was “completely inappropriate” to campaign by a war memorial.
He wrote to Thanet Reform group leader Cllr Barry Manners to request “no future political campaigning by (Reform) members and party is held at the Broadstairs War Memorial – or indeed any War Memorial across our district.”
Cllr Bright said: “As the ward councillor for the area, I believe that it is totally inappropriate to use our town’s war memorial as a site for political campaigning in this way.
“I know that the Labour Party would not do so and have every confidence that Green and Conservative Party councillors and campaigners would feel the same way.
“I’m sure Reform UK will correctly argue that they have broken no rules in campaigning at the site of a war memorial but in my view – and the views of many residents – that doesn’t make it right.
“The Broadstairs War Memorial is not Speakers’ Corner; it is a place of remembrance, and anybody holding a political event at this location is eroding the sanctity of the space.
“For the avoidance of doubt – it would be wrong for any political party to use our War Memorial as the backdrop for campaigning, so my objection has nothing to do with the political leanings of Reform UK. There are many suitable places to set up a street stall in and around Broadstairs, but our War Memorial is not one of them.
“I therefore wrote to Cllr Manners asking that he encourage members to choose another location in future and was disappointed that he responded to inform me that he would not.
“Our society has never been so divided – so I’m incredibly sad that one of the few shared spaces is being abused in such a distasteful way.”
However, Cllr Manners has accused Cllr Bright of acting “in malice” and says members were not inside the war memorial boundary but on a wide pavement nearby.
He said: “This is beginning to look less like serious local politics and more like simple malice.
“Reform campaigners were on the wide pavement outside Pierremont Hall, peacefully talking to members of the public about local issues – including the chronic lack of parking enforcement.
“They weren’t standing on the War Memorial. They weren’t inside its immediate boundary. They weren’t holding a rally on it or interfering with any act of remembrance. They were simply near it, because this is a prominent, safe public location where residents actually pass by.
“Broadstairs War Memorial itself stands prominently in front of Pierremont Hall, facing the High Street – precisely the sort of central public location in which war memorials were historically placed.
“Yet Cllr Kristian Bright has complained that Reform had turned the memorial into a “backdrop for political theatre” and has asked me to ensure Reform never campaigns at a war memorial anywhere in Thanet.
“I won’t be doing that.
“Of course war memorials should be treated with respect, and I would expect Reform campaigners never to interfere with a memorial or an act of remembrance. But being offended because people whose politics you dislike are standing on a nearby pavement is something quite different.
“There are plenty of genuine local issues for councillors to spend their time on. Perhaps we could concentrate on fixing those rather than manufacturing controversies about people peacefully talking to residents on a pavement.”
He pointed to a photo of Labour councillors inside the curtilage of a war memorial as ‘giving perspective.’ Cllr Bright says the picture is from Croydon and taken nine years ago rather than Thanet in the present day and so “completely irrelevant.”
