Wolverhampton's Remembrance Sunday service closed to public due to Covid-19
Wolverhampton's annual Remembrance Sunday service will be closed to the public and instead live streamed, it has been announced.
The city council has announced that the annual service will look different this year, as Wolverhampton continues to manage the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wolverhampton Council announced today that the city would still mark Remembrance Sunday on November 8, but the event will not be open to the public due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The service in St Peter’s Square will be significantly scaled back with far fewer official participants and no military parade.
Instead, the council will live stream a service from the cenotaph on its Wolverhampton Today Facebook page to enable people to watch the proceedings and remember the fallen.
A very small number of invited guests will attend the Cenotaph service.
Announcing the decision, Councillor Claire Darke, the Mayor of Wolverhampton, said: “As a city we will mark Remembrance Sunday and remember the fallen, but we will do it differently this year.
"I know people will understand this, nobody will be expecting the usual large public service and parade in the midst of a pandemic, especially when many of the people who usually attend are elderly and thus more vulnerable to Covid-19.
“We did not want to cancel the service entirely, so we have agreed to scale things back and live stream the service on social media.”
Fred Bunce, chairman of the Wolverhampton Central Branch of the Royal British Legion, added: "We fully understand the reasons for the scaling back of this year's Remembrance Sunday service, it is the right thing to ask people to stay at home this year in the interests of public safety.
"We are very pleased that the council is planning to stream the event online so that people can still watch the service."
Further details on the format of the service and how people can watch the live stream will be announced closer to the time.
