COLUMN: Edward Argar, MP for Melton and Syston

As Melton’s local MP, it was a pleasure to attend the town’s moving annual commemoration service in St Mary’s Church, alongside the Mayor of Melton, Councillor Siggy Atherton, the Vice-Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire, the leader of Melton Borough Council, a large number of our local Air Cadets, and local residents.

Following the service the traditional march past took place in the Market Place, followed by the wreath-laying in the memorial gardens beside Egerton Lodge.

As always, the local Royal Air Force Association, and all who helped organise the commemorations, did the memory of ‘The Few’, the young RAF pilots who defended our skies in 1940, proud, and the RAFA Club as always provided its generous hospitality.

The service not only, rightly, commemorated those who served, who fought and died for our country’s freedom in 1940 against the onslaught of the German Luftwaffe, but reflected the importance of service, and the sacrifice made by those young men for others, and for their country.

Those themes continue to resonate and matter to us today, no less than they did then.

As well as remembering, events such as this not only see the community come together, but rightly remind us of past sacrifices but also the ongoing sacrifices made, and service given to us all by those who serve in our Royal Air Force and Armed Forces more widely today, and those who are veterans of service to our country.

We must never forget our gratitude to those who kept alive the flame of freedom in our skies back in 1940, nor those who continue to stand ready to do so for our country in our ever more challenging international scene today.

On a different topic, but linked to the theme of community, I wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate our local community radio station, 103 The Eye, on its 20th anniversary this year.

Christine and the team do an amazing job in bringing genuinely local news and entertainment to our area, in an age where so much is regional or national - another example of genuinely local news and reporting being the Melton Times and this paper’s very own Nick Rennie!

I have had the pleasure of being on air being interviewed by 103 The Eye’s Christine or most recently, Jerry, on a number of occasions - always fun, always interesting, never afraid to ask probing questions, but always about genuinely local issues that matter to our area.

They, and other local community news organisations, do an amazing job of keeping the local in local radio and local news.

They help bring our communities together and collectively are part of the glue that binds us.

My huge congratulations to 103 The Eye, and all who have contributed to its success, on its 20th anniversary, and here’s to the next 20 years!