Chairman visits Armed Forces Support Group

Published: 11 August 2021

Mrs Buchanan giving the award to Cllr Ali and AFSG Chairman Michael Sutcliff and Mrs Christine Sutcliff responsible for fund raising were in attendance. 

In October 2020, the Council had been approached by Mike Sutcliffe of the Pendle Armed Forces Support Group seeking assistance following a serious vandal attack on the roof at their office. The organisation had been quoted £1,000 to repair the damage. With the winter fast approaching, it was imperative that these repairs took place as soon as possible. The Armed Forces Support Group would ordinarily have gone out to do some fundraising themselves to go towards the repairs, however lockdown due to Covid-19 prevented them from doing so.

Mike had provided costings to the Council and asked that members of the Finance and General Purposes committee consider a contribution to the repairs. Members discussed this at the October 2020 meeting, and were all in agreement that the Armed Forces Support Group are an essential service to a large number of residents not only in Nelson, but the whole of Pendle. The decision was to award the group the full cost of the repairs so that they could continue to provide their excellent services to the community before any further damage was caused externally or internally to their office.

Once lockdown restrictions were lifted, Mike invited Nelson Town Council Chairman, Councillor Zafar Ali, down to the offices to show him the new roofing and show him what the group do and how it’s done.

Whilst there, Councillor Ali was also presented with a Certificate of Appreciation from Chairman Mike Sutcliffe, Fundraising Secretary Christine Sutcliff and also Deputy Lord Lieutenant Mrs Christina Buchanan, who also takes a great interest in what the Armed Forces Support Group do.

Upon receiving the award, Councillor Ali said “It’s great to finally have the chance to get down to the Armed Forces Support Group office now that Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. Mike and the other volunteers within the group do a fantastic job and myself and the other members of Nelson Town Council were more than happy to help them out with the funding they needed to continue this valuable service”.