West Lancashire veteran Clare Pollard meets Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Jul 16 2009 by Michael Byrne, Skelmersdale Advertiser

LOCAL veteran Clare Pollard had a very important meeting when he accompanied West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper to meet the Prime Minister at a special Armed Forces Day reception in Downing Street.

Clare, of Ashurst, organised the West Lancashire Day commemoration as part of his many community activities.

He is chairman of the Ashurst Tenants and Residents Assocation and heavily involved with local sea cadets.

His voluntary work earned him an Advertiser community heroes award last year.

Rosie said: “I am proud to support Armed Forces Day and was delighted to honour Clare with a trip to Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister and other former and serving service personnel.

“I’ve long been a supporter of Veterans Day as it used to be known and actively encourage local veterans to get in touch with me to apply for their veterans badge.

“This year the day has changed to a celebration of all of our armed forces – past, present and future – and it was a pleasure to see such a range of people at the event, from veterans of wars past to current personnel and young sea cadets.

“It is essential to honour all those who serve and I look forward to many more of such events in years to come to recognise and celebrate the outstanding achievements of our armed forces.”

Local veteran Clare Pollard said: “I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. I had the chance before the reception to explore the House of Commons with Rosie and it was great to see democracy in action. I met lots of other MPs who were very complimentary about Rosie and how hard working she is which was good to hear. The reception was excellent. I had an interesting discussion with Sarah Brown and met the Prime Minister and it meant a lot to see such effort being put into an event for our armed forces.

“It shows that the Government recognises our contribution and people aren’t forgotten.”