SHABBY headgear has sparked a stinging attack on a West Devon council, which has been accused of losing its civic pride ? for the sake of money. Mace bearer Bob Rose is refusing to represent Tavistock unless the town council buys him and the other mace bearers, all unpaid volunteers, new hats. Mr Rose, who is also the town crier, said he was appalled at the ?mouldy-looking? state of the headgear macebearers were expected to wear on official occasions. He said: ?When we saw these things we were expected to wear on Remembrance Sunday, I said ?No way am I going to wear that?. The hats are going green, they look really, really tatty. ?The town crier of Callington and myself wore our town crier hats, but if there is no intention of getting new mace bearers? hats, I shall no longer remain as a mace bearer representing the town I love.? Mr Rose said he would not let members of the Royal British Legion down on Remembrance Sunday. ?I think it?s unfair, these old boys turn out on a cold winter?s day and they are as proud as punch and I?m standing there in a tatty hat,? said Mr Rose. ?I refuse flatly to wear a hat like that again. If I am not permitted to wear my town crier?s hat they will have to try and recruit someone who has no shame ? I might as well go dressed as a clown. It?s a council with no civic pride, it?s forgetting what civic pride is all about.? Mr Rose last year tried to persuade the council to buy black, hunting-style toppers for the mace bearers at just £60 each. But councillors preferred the traditional look of the tricorn and spent £75 on each hat to get them refurbished. Tavistock mace bearer Simon Dell agreed that despite this, the hats were ?very tatty and rather embarrassing?. Mr Dell said: ?The hats have been refurbished to a degree, but they are perhaps not quite as dignified as they could be for the office of mace bearer ? in my opinion more appropriate headgear could be obtained.? At last week?s meeting of the council?s finance committee, members refused to loosen the purse strings and fork out for new titfers. Cllr Jane Ramsey said: ?I don?t see a lot wrong with them, for the amount of time they wear them.? Cllr Peter Jones said: ?As a former member of a regiment which used a reasonable amount of gold braid, they are actually not that bad from a distance ? the gold braid isn?t that tarnished. ?I personally don?t feel they are in that bad a condition ? however, I?m not the one wearing them.? The committee rejected a request for two new tricorns at a cost of £245 each and agreed to review the hat situation in a year?s time. The decision was due to be ratified by the full town council when it met on Tuesday night.
