Residents were outraged when a local council ordered the removal of a memorial bench to a deceased war hero because the family had not obtained authorization for the homage.
Former Royal Marine Corporal Tony Sutcliff’s bereaved family built a commemorative Remembrance bench to be put where his ashes were spread last year on Baildon Moor in West Yorkshire.
However, Bradford council managers are asking that the monument to the 44-year-old, who committed himself in 2019 after years of fighting PTSD, be removed since his family did not provide permission.
Nearly 4,000 people have signed on online petition calling for the bench to stay put at Tony’s final resting place, for his widow, Kate, daughter Lyra, and other loved ones to visit.
Tony’s brother, David Sutcliffe, who arranged the tribute said the family asked the council for permission but ‘never really got anywhere’.
‘I put it up there for my brother,’ the 43-year-old said. ‘He was in the military for 12 years, and he made me promise that if anything ever happened to him I’d scatter his ashes there and put something there to remember him by.
‘I asked for permission from the Council, but never really got anywhere so we took it into our own hands.’
The Moor was a special place for Tony, a former Para cadet, who loved to keep fit by hiking in the area after joining the Marines at 40 Commando.
His wife, Kate, said: ‘Tony had been suffering with PTSD for many years since leaving the military but struggled to open up about it.
He had so much built-up anger from the tours he did and suffered severe survivor’s guilt after a friend and colleague died in action whilst he was away in Dubai.
‘The PTSD caused terrible night terrors which continually disturbed his sleep. In the end it all got too much and on the 12th April 2019 he took his own life at home.
‘The pain we felt in the following months after Tony’s passing was indescribable. Lyra was such a daddy’s girl, so to imagine them never together again was absolutely heart breaking.’
A spokesperson for Bradford Council said the authority had received ‘several complaints’ about the bench.
‘The Council and its local partners very much support remembrance,’ they said.
‘But we have received several complaints about the bench as it never received approval before being put there.’