A NORTH Yorkshire councillor has been accused of lacking in respect after parking his van outside a house which was the focus for a Remembrance Day event to honour 4,000 Caribbean servicemen.

For the past three years a group has held their own event outside a house in Queen Street, Filey, after the town council refused to let them put up a commemorative plaque in the town's memorial gardens.

During World War Two the men travelled thousands of miles to train as mechanics, radio operators, cooks and clerks at RAF Hunmanby Moor.

Four of the volunteers – three just 19-years-old – are buried at Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate.

The white van blocking the way as a bugler plays The Last Post on Sunday November 8

placeholder image — The white van blocking the way as a bugler plays The Last Post on Sunday November 8

But when attendees turned up last Sunday, they discovered a white van parked outside the house, which they now use as a focus for their Remembrance event, after its owners allowed the plaque to go up outside.

Leeds barrister Glenn Parsons said they had been saddened and upset.

Councillor Sam Cross told The Yorkshire Post that he wasn't a Filey town councillor and had played no part in the decision to refuse the plaque going into the memorial gardens.

He said he used the street for parking most days of the year, and had left his van on Friday night.

Left to right) Alford Gardner (97), Gilbert Clarke (97), Neil Flanigan (98), Ralph Ottey (99), Jake Jacob (97) and Jack Crawford (99) Credit: MSI Photography, Hull

He said: "Mr Parsons has a problem with Filey Town Council. I’m not a Filey town councillor, I’m a North Yorkshire councillor. I'm a local resident and I park on the street where I live."

However Mr Parsons said he didn't accept his explanation, and the councillor’s name appeared on the town council’s website: "We were saddened and disappointed that after years of trying to reason with Filey town council that when we arrived the van was blocking our way to this Act of Remembrance, and it was owned by a councillor with his parking pass proudly displayed in the window. We don't accept his protestation that he knows nothing about these issues."

After Mr Parsons made a speech to town councillors, the rules were changed in 2022 banning any memorials to servicemen unless they had died and were from Filey.

There have been hopes that a new influx of town councillors will lead to a change of heart and allow the plaque to finally go up in the memorial gardens.

Alford Gardner, co-founder of Leeds Caribbean Cricket Club, and whose portrait hangs in Buckingham Palace, was one of six veterans to attend the unveiling of the plaque on Queen Street in Filey in April 2023. Mr Gardner died aged 98 in 2024. He trained as a mechanic at RAF Hunmanby Moor, which was requisitioned from Billy Butlin. Mr Gardner, whose father served in WW1 in France and Belgium, later returned on the Empire Windrush.

But Mr Parsons said he felt deflated: "I hoped it could be the start of a new era. What's been so frustrating is that nobody really has contacted us, or said this is the issue, how can we see a way around it, other than the time I went to the council chamber and addressed them, but they refused to take questions."

Councillor Cross, who once represented UKIP on the former Scarborough Council, told The Yorkshire Post there'd been "no road closures and nothing mentioned in the press."

However Mr Parsons said every year they notified the town council and police in advance of the event which takes no more than half an hour and involves around 40 people.