I put up a memorial for my Royal Marine brother… but council jobsworths want to take it down as I didn’t have permission
A JOBSWORTH council has been slammed after they ordered a heartbroken family to remove a memorial bench for a Royal Marine - because they did not get permission.
Family of ex-Royal Marine Corporal Tony Sutcliffe placed the bench where they had scattered his ashes on Basildon Moor, West Yorkshire, last year.
The 44-year-old took his own life in 2019 after battling PTSD, with the family designing the Remembrance bench in his memory.
But council bosses at Bradford are demanding that it be removed because they did not have permission for it.
Nearly 4,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the bench to stay put, so that his widow, Kate, daughter Lyra, and other loved ones can still visit.
Tony's brother, David Sutcliffe, who arranged the tribute, said the family has asked for permission from the council but “never really got anywhere.”
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David, 43, said: "I put it up there for my brother. 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."
Tony's family say joining the Marines at 40 Commando was a dream come true for the former Para cadet, and he loved keeping fit by hiking across the Moor.
His widow Kate said: "Tony had been suffering with PTSD for many years since leaving the military but struggled to open up about it.
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"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."
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Bradford Council said: "The Council and its local partners very much support remembrance.
"But we have received several complaints about the bench as it never received approval before being put there."