A CIVIC leader has called for Kirklees Council to formally support the Heroes Welcome initiative – and offered to help get it up and running.

Clr David Pinder, Mayor of Mirfield, was responding to calls from Kirklees Conservatives for the council to back the Heroes Welcome which supports servicemen and women.

Mirfield Town Council has already embraced the initiative and Clr Pinder said: “My message to Kirklees is ‘don’t just talk about it – go ahead and do it’.” He said: “Mirfield adopted the Heroes Welcome initiative on Armed Forces Day on June 30.

“We have been told by the organisers of Heroes Welcome that we were the first in West Yorkshire to do so.

“Now shops and businesses around the town have stickers on their windows showing their support for Heroes Welcome.”

Heroes Welcome shows support for British Armed Forces personnel in practical ways – from providing a warm welcome, service upgrade or special acknowledgement to offering a small discount on goods and services.

Kirklees signed the Community Covenant after it was proposed by Conservative former Mayor, Andrew Palfreeman, who raised £45,000 for Combat Stress during his mayoral year.

The council has a small working group which is bidding for funds from the Ministry of Defence and developing an action plan to help local service personnel.

Clr Pinder said: “We are not a garrison town or even a tourist town, but nobody has yet said they don’t want to be part of the scheme.

“Although there is no automatic discount for service personnel it is a nice way of showing service families that we understand the sacrifices they are making and that we are behind them.”

And he added: “If Kirklees decide to adopt the initiative we would be delighted to assist them”.