A SCOUT group which is planning to mark 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War with a fun event featuring fairgrounds rides and cream teas have suffered a cash snub after councillors branded the idea as “inappropriate”.

Councillors voted by a majority to turn down a request for £500 to help fund the event being held by 7th Bramshill (Hook) Scout Group.

The Scout group are holding The Village Gathering at their base, in Raven Road, on Saturday, August 30.

According to the group’s website, it wants children attending to dress up in “clothes representing 1914-1918”. The day will also include stalls, games, arena displays, fairground rides and bouncy castles.

The website states: “The Village Gathering wants YOU to come along and have an afternoon of fun.”

The group asked Hook Parish Council for £500 – but some members questioned the tone of the event and were unwilling to support the cash request.

Councillor Anthony Hawkins said: “I do not think it’s appropriate to commemorate the beginning of the war – it should be done at the end of the war. I just think the whole thing should not be an absolute jollity.”

Cllr Martin Whittaker agreed. He said: “I do not think it’s appropriate to commemorate the outbreak of a war, and I do not think it’s appropriate to have cream teas and a band.

“Are funfair rides, a barbecue, cream teas and an act of music appropriate? Not in my world.”

The vote to give money to the Scout group was tight, with five members voting against, four in favour and one abstaining.

Chairman Cllr Iain Chalmers said the parish council should write to the Scout group with the result of the vote, saying that the council felt “it was inappropriate to commemorate, in this way, the start of the First World War.”

The Scout group declined to comment when contacted by The Gazette.

The First World War claimed the lives of 700,000 British men and a total of nine million soldiers.