Councillors in Sutton have reacted angrily to a safety ban on a cannon salute on Remembrance Sunday.
In the past the sound, known as a maroon, was used to signal the beginning and end of the two-minute silence.
It was previously triggered by the Parks Police Service in the borough's two main parks at 11am and then at 11.02am.
But these officers have been axed and the replacement service, Safer Parks Teams, which are an arm of the Met, cannot use the cannons on health and safety grounds.
Conservative councillor Barry Russell said: "I don't know why we are pandering to the health and safety brigade on what is a very important day."
"The cost is absolutely negligible and I know of very few people who wouldn't say that this is the least we can do when you think about the price the servicemen and women paid for us."
"I don't think the fact is widely known yet but when it is there are a lot of people who will be truly incensed. I can understand that the Met are concerned about heath and safety at the moment but this is ridiculous."
He pointed out that a fireworks company offers a remembrance service package for £250.
Imperial fireworks will supply a trained specialist to come to the venue,trigger the devices twice and cover the cost of insurance liability.
In spite of protests, the parks police were axed by the Lib-Dem led council earlier this year as part of a cost-cutting drive.
The two replacement Safer Parks Teams each comprise a sergeant, two PCs and three police community support officers.
A spokeswoman for the Met confirmed they would not be firing the maroons but would not comment further.
Two years ago, war veterans in the seaside town of Walton, Essex, were left fuming after lifeboatmen told them that they would not be able to fire maroons at the beginning and end of the silence on advice from Royal National Lifeboat Institution headquarters.
John Halls, the chairman of the local Royal British Legion, said he was "very sad" that the decades-old tradition had come to an end.
Remembrance Day ceremonies will take place across the country on Sunday, with the National Service of Remembrance being held at the Cenotaph in Whitehall from 10.30am.
**Can we make a start on making these fucks do the "gallows dance"...You know I seriously think that we are being slowly taken over by the Vogon's from the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy:
Vogons are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy. Not evil, but bad tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public enquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. On no account should you allow a Vogon to read poetry to you.
**Or a moslem come to think about it: http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2007/11/samina-malik-post-2.html
Tags:Cool Britannia
Nanny State
Lunacy
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