Before Gosport Borough Council changed its memorial bench policy in November, residents who bought a bench were told it would be theirs for life.
 
The new rules stipulate a 10-year buffer period from the date of installation, afterwards, the applicants will have to pay a renewal fee every five years. If the applicant cannot be contacted when the renewal is due then the plaque will be removed and replaced by someone else's.

We took out the bench for our son - Daniel Day - eight years ago and we were told it would be maintained for life once we had paid nearly £1,000 for it.
We understood that the bench would be ours for life and now they’re saying that they’ll let us have it for another 10 years and after that, they’ll start charging us to maintain them which wasn't the agreement in the first place.
If they can’t trace the person who originally paid for the bench then they will take the plaque off the bench and sell the bench to someone else and put their plaque on it - I pointed out that this was out of order, they’re desecrating a memorial.

The policy also says it can only accept payment from the person who originally paid for the plaque and bench, unless they have given written permission allowing someone else to act on their behalf.
We fear this will mean the bench will not be around for our grandson Alfie - Daniel's son - in future decades.

Please support this petition.

The policy can be viewed here: https://democracy.gosport.gov.uk/documents/s3258/2021-10-05%20Commemorative%20Bench%20Seat%20Policy.pdf