A ROW has erupted in Puriton over plans to build a war memorial in the centre of the village.

June Holland, 79, had the idea to build a war memorial in Puriton and raised £3,000 herself through events to get the project started, but at the last stage the plans hit a stumbling block.

June, who suffers from leukaemia, had planned for the official unveiling to be in early August and had booked a choir for the event, but now due to reservations raised by local parish councillors, she’s not sure if she will make that date.

June, who lives in Taunton but grew up in Puriton, said: “We were fed up of waiting for the parish council. We just couldn’t sit on our backsides waiting for the council because the way things were going we were not going to get that planning permission in time.

“They have not been really helpful at all and it nearly put me off. I have got leukaemia so I do not need this stress.”

The Rev Doris Goddard, the vicar at Puriton Church, has been working with June to get this memorial built.

The Rev Goddard submitted a planning application for the war memorial to Sedgemoor District Council on April 25 before the parish council had formally agreed to the plans.

The Rev Goddard said: “We found out at the 11th hour people had complaints. The person who was raising the money almost had a picture of the memorial in her pocket.”

The original plan was to build the cross on the green in Puriton but eventually this changed to being placed in the church grounds.

The Rev Goddard added: “It would have replaced a nasty rusty pole on the village green. It wouldn’t have been very much ‘in your face’.

“There’s a memorial to a lad who ran into a bus on his motorbike on the green already. This was going to go unobtrusively in the corner of the green.”

Bruce Poole, clerk to Puriton Parish Council, said: “A couple of parish councillors had reservations about it. But at this time we haven’t had any formal complaints.

“The war memorial committee sent in its designs but because there were some reservations, the parish council wanted to make sure all the residents of the village had their say. The council has now applied for planning permission which went in last Friday.”

The design plans will be reviewed tomorrow (Tuesday) by the parish council.