A ROW is brewing in Petersfield over the town councilÕs decision to scrap bunting on special occasions.

Last week killjoy councillors axed bunting, saying it was too expensive, and in future the town would have to make do with helium balloons.

Now Paul Malloy, chairman of the townÕs jubilee committee, the man responsible for one of the biggest celebrations in Petersfield for decades, has said he is ÔdismayedÕ at the councilÕs decision.

In a letter to The Herald Mr Molloy said: ÒI was disappointed, if not dismayed, to learn of the decision by town council not to approve what amounts to a very minor investment in the community spirit and general wellbeing of Petersfield.Ó

Mr Molloy admits that good quality bunting is expensive but states: ÒCompared to the largesse with which huge expense has, and continues to be, lavished elsewhere - the town hall and Festival Hall to name but two - it is a paltry sum indeedÓ.

Mr Molloy praised the Christmas lights and the efforts of Petersfield in Bloom, saying that they gave great pleasure to all and had obvious commercial advantages.

But he said: ÒWhere we quite clearly fail is in our inability to bedeck the town with traditional bunting, and at no time has this been more obvious than during this jubilee year. Many people have made this point to me, and it was only because we managed to unearth some old Naval flags and pennants that we had any bunting in the town at all.Õ

The town council plans to scrap the traditional street decoration for civic occasions and use helium balloons in trees instead, a move Mr Molloy feels is a Ôdumbing downÕ of such occasions.

He said: ÒJust locate some of those old photographs of past celebrations with towns the length and breadth of the land always managing to hang bunting, even through the desperate days of the 30s depression and the debilitating six years of the Õ39-45 war.Ó