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South Tyneside councillors plan reception for squaddies

Nov 22 2009 Sunday Sun

BRAVE squaddies who have served in conflicts overseas are to be honoured by a North East council.

South Tyneside councillors have decided to hold a civic reception and homecoming parade for veterans from the area next Sunday.

They want to mark the sacrifice that many from the area have made in all the recent conflicts which the UK has been involved in.

Servicemen and women who have served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Northern Ireland have been invited to attend.

The families of those who have tragically lost their lives in any of those conflicts will also be there.

They will be joined by the Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear, Lord and Lady Dixon, Mayor and Mayoress of South Tyneside as well as all members of the council, local MPs and senior council officers.

Geraldine White, Independent councillor for the Fellgate & Hedworth ward said: “I’m very proud that the town will honour these young men in this way.

“We are doing this because we need to show that young men and women are not going out there to Afghanistan without us thinking about them.

“It is a very hard job and they need to know that everyone here is thinking about them.

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