A grieving couple have vowed to continue with a roadside tribute to their teenage son – days after it was mysteriously taken down. Simon and Sonya Watton were devastated when flowers and a photograph of their son David disappeared from Lord Sheldon Way in Ashton. The pair, of Hawthorn Grove, Ashton, believe council workers were responsible for removing the tributes to the 17-year-old who died after being knocked off his bike on Lord Sheldon Way in 2006. They have vowed to continue putting them there. Mr Watton said: "Myself and my wife are extremely upset and angry. This is a sign of disrespect in our books. We will continue to put floral tributes there forever and a day and we will continue to put a picture of David there, too." Council bosses have denied taking the flowers and photographs away. But last September they declared that floral tributes could be a ‘distraction’ for drivers and recommended they be removed after a month. They stated mourners should take responsibility for removing tributes to keep the streets clean. A council spokesman said: "Having made inquiries we can state that the flowers were not removed by Tameside Council staff. "There is no 30-day policy for the removal of roadside memorials, but they are generally taken away when the flowers have died or become unsightly." Mr Watton said: "The flowers had not been touched in previous years. The council said recently that families should only be given a month to grieve with the tributes. That’s terrible." Mr Watton also wants to see a law enforcement camera at the junction where his son was killed. He says Lord Sheldon Way has become a rat run for speeding motorists. On the subject of the memorial, he added: "We will continue to put the tributes at Lord Sheldon Way throughout the year. If the council remove our tributes then we will replace the flowers and the picture". Tameside Advertiser
I often pass a site on Hyde Rd on the way into Manchester where a grieving family has one of these roadside memorials. Personally I think they are more of an aide to road safety rather than a hazard. Anyone who passes one of these makeshift shrines surely must realise the dangers associated with roads, traffic and pedestrians and as a result most people will be more careful as they drive. On the other hand and looking at it from the councils point of view if they take no action and allow these makeshift shines to proliferate there would eventually be an issue of shrines which were not regularly maintained become eyesores. Tameside Citizen
23 comments:
I disagree strongly with these memorials. Grief should be private. We managed perfectly well without such displays in the past.
Lady Knighton is related to Margaret Downs.
Are we talking about the same Lady Knighton
? If so I never knew she had blue blood but I should have really guessed because she is such a classy chick.
Labour should remove the flowers. They should also remove that nameplate as Sheldon defrauded the taxpayer by declaring a property in Manchester that his son has owned since 2003 as his own main home. This enabled him to fraudulently claim £110,848 off the taxpayer for overnight allowances. No wonder the public are so utterly disillusioned when those in positions of high authority and responsibility who are supposed to set an example are stealing from them.
Never let it be said that you were never warned. When he has his way, and it will happen, you will truly know the meaning of what your cowardice and ignorance has caused. You will condemned for ever more for allowing this to take place while you looked the other way.
What absolute rubbish! We spent a wonderful evening in The Purple Pakora which is on Buxton Rd in Disley. The food is out of this world and the staff, all of whom are Muslim are wonderful. People must learn to understand the Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance and Muslims are courteous hard working people who just want to get on with their lives. Our waiter Ali was telling us about life in his village in Bangladesh. He said he loves Britain more than most British people because Britain has been good to him. Back in Bangladesh he and his family worked hard and lived in poverty, he said since he moved to Britain his life has been transformed and now he and his family are all very happy. He even arranged for us to have complimentary papadums and mango chutney when we told him we were travelling across the county first thing in the morning to give the Nazi BNP hell over in Codnor. We begged him to come and join us but such is the vicious reputation of the BNP he politely declined our offer, but nevertheless we will be there along with a broad coalition of trades unionists, mainstream politicians, workers, minorities and representatives from the LGBT community.
STD, you seem to often frequent Indian restaurants. Please tell me, have you ever noticed any white people working in such establishments? If not, does that not cause you concern seeing as you are a self appointed champion of diversity?
STD, why are all immigrants so wonderful, no matter how many, how vastly different or hostile to our way of life or however fast they flood in. This country has been transformed beyond recognition in the last twelve years by fascist Britain haters like you without the consent of the British people. Your hatred of democracy manifests itself in the violence, intimidation and abuse you and your ilk attempt to inflict on a lawfully constituted democratic Party whose appalling 'crime' is to disagree with and try to stop the British identity wrecking agenda via unlimited immigration you are trying to impose.
The worst racial hatred I have ever encountered came from Bangladeshis I used to work with. Their hatred of Pakistanis due to the events of 1971 was visceral. I later found that such bigotry and antipathy was widespresd on both sides. Incidentally there are 164 million, and rapidly rising, people in Bangladesh, how many more are you planning on letting in?
The more time goes on and the more events continue on their current course the more likely it will end in extreme bloodshed.
I've just moved to Lincolnshire for a new job after living in Tameside and Oldham for 28 years. What a bloody pleasure to live in a part of England that's still English.
I lived in Oldham from 2000-2009 and watched its identity being ever more rapidly destroyed. Tameside's not too bad AT THE MOMENT, it's the way it's headed that's the problem.
Roger, Sleaford.
stacey knighton related to Margaret Downs? Now that could cause some trouble...
If the people who placed these tributes had the decency to remove them when the flowers were dead and looking awful along side our roads then maybe people would not remove them.
Harbinger, that guy Shahid Malik is well known and well remembered in his former East Lancashire stamping grounds for being both a troublemaker and a pain in the butt.
He was very vocal in his criticism of the police and the local council (which his own party then had control of) when the riots hit Burnley in 2001. Malik is not someone to be trusted or believed in any way, shape or form.
Check out Malik's invlolvement in the MP's expenses scandal and notice how he kept his job. The main Parties are on their knees to Islam and will sell Britain down the river to get the Muslim vote.
Talking of trouble makers I hope you all worked a little extra last week to pay for the racist thug West to take his him and his family to the fascist festival this weekend.
We paid them a visit Saturday just wanted to let them know they are not welcome in this little village.
£125.00 fine
£200 court cost
£ 50 compensation
£ 15 victim surcharge
£390 total cost
Who do you think paid this for west? yes you the tax payer, we are mugs putting up with people like him,and now we pay for him to party.
The police bill for this all white festival is £500,000 guess whos paying it.
This great Man paid my fine.
Thanks for your continued interest.
This great Man paid my fine.
Thanks for your continued interest.
Joe's Monkey, if the UAF thugs hadn't turned up the Police bill would have been zero.
But you've no problem paying for the evergrowing mountain of immigrants and the massive consequent drain on social services. The unemployment rate amongst Somali immigrants is 91% and they're still shipping them in en masse. Ask any Copper what they're like to deal with, the words violent, knife-carrying and savage come to mind.
UAF, you're the ones not welcome as you're the ones making all the trouble. The taxpayers are mugs for footing the £500,000 bill that YOU caused. How many of those long-haired freaks work for a living?
What's wrong with an all white festival? Every other ethnic group is allowed to belong to organisations that represent, protect and defend their interests. Let's face it you just hate white people.
See you all again next year there will be more of next time Griffins comments about murdering women and children swelled our ranks, and you know he will put his big Nazi jack boot in it again.
That's not what Nick Griffin said but you DO advocate violence against people who disagree with you.
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