Funding for a new poppy memorial has stalled, according to the mayor of Royal Wootton Bassett.

Cllr Pat Farrow made the remarks at the meeting of the full council on December 8.

Tom Patterson is raising £290,000 to replace the memorial which collapsed under its own weight in October 2017.

The 4.5-tonne memorial, titled 'Forever', had been unveiled by Princess Anne just a year earlier.

Under a motion passed by the council in November 2021, it was agreed that a timescale of 18 months would be needed to complete the fundraising for the replacement.

In December 2021, the town council requested that updates were received from Tom every month at each council meeting.

Giving the latest update Cllr Farrow said: “We contacted Tom to see if there was any update on the poppy.

“He’s come back and it’s rather negative unfortunately, there was an 18-month completion time.

“Fundraising has not gone well; it is almost non-existent”

Cllr Farrow added that the new town clerk Mark Hopkins and Tom Patterson would meet in the new year to discuss a way forward.

The memorial was built to show respect to the armed forces and the 345 personnel who gave their lives for the UK.

On every occasion, residents of Royal Wootton Bassett would line the streets to honour the fallen.

This was highlighted by former U.S President Barack Obama in 2010, who namedropped the town in a press conference from Washington DC.

He said: “Whether it’s here or in the small British town of Wootton Bassett. People line the streets, there is a solemn tribute that represents the best of the British character.”

Wootton Bassett has had a strong links with the armed services since 2007, when the funeral corteges of fallen service personnel are first driven through the town having landed at RAF Lyneham, instead of Brize Norton.

In 2011, the town became the first in more than a century to be granted the title 'royal' to mark the way it honoured fallen personnel.

Over the four years, 345 fallen men and women drove through the town in 167 repatriations.

At a ceremony in 2016, the poppy was blessed by the Bishop of Ramsbury before Princess Anne laid a wreath of poppies.

After the ceremony, she chatted to Petty Officer Brendan Smith, from the town's sea cadet unit, who has seen service in Northern Ireland and Kosovo.

“It’s a very proud moment,” he said. "It was important not to forget those lost in recent conflicts and that was what the poppy stood for."