27 June 2026
Ashington Town Council’s Civic Head, Cllr Caroline Ball, joined civic and military dignitaries this week for the Armed Forces Day Thanksgiving Service, organised by the Ashington Branch of the Royal British Legion (RBL).
The service was attended by Deputy Lord Lieutenant Julie Cordon and Ian Lavery MP, who laid floral tributes alongside the Civic Head and President of RBL Ashington, Mr Al Vaziri. Ms Cordon was accompanied by her brother, Mr John McConville, Chair of the charity Brainbox. Both spoke with Cllr Ball about the charity’s work supporting children and young people affected by acquired brain injury, and their families, across Ashington and Northumberland. Veterans, members of the public, the Army Cadet Force and Ashington Sea Cadets stood proud throughout a fitting service led by Padre Major (Retired) Philip Gray, MBE, whose address reflected on the origins of the day. He noted that what is now Armed Forces Day began life in 2006 as Veterans’ Day, introduced at a time when British troops were heavily committed in Iraq and Afghanistan and investment in, and recognition of, the Armed Forces was widely felt to be low. The day was created, the Padre explained, to motivate troops serving at the time by showing them that the nation stood behind them — a message that resonates as strongly today as it did at its inception. The observance was renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009.
In May 2018, Ashington Town Council invited households to take part in the town-wide residents’ survey. At the same time, smaller scale surveys were taking place with local businesses and retail traders.
As a Town Council, it is particularly important to us that all residents get a real chance and opportunity to have a direct say and to put forward views about how they would like to see Ashington improve and move forward. The aim of the 2018 Survey was to capture an overall resident’s picture of life in Ashington at this time, as well as to see how residents thought things had changed over the 5-year period since the initial survey in 2012.
We received an excellent response with almost 3,000 residents completing and returning a survey an increase of almost 25% on 2012. On behalf of Ashington Town Council I would like to thank you for taking the time to return the survey, clearly there were many things you wanted to tell us. The level of response gives a very clear town-wide message regarding a number of service areas and builds significantly on the somewhat limited consultation undertaken by Northumberland County Council earlier this year.
Both the key findings and the full Survey Report are linked below. The results are informative as well as challenging, and paint a very clear picture of where residents would like to see improvements made town-wide and what they feel the Town Centre requires.
Cllr.Mark Purvis - Business Chair of Ashington Town Council
27 June 2026
Ashington Town Council’s Civic Head, Cllr Caroline Ball, joined civic and military dignitaries this week for the Armed Forces Day Thanksgiving Service, organised by the Ashington Branch of the Royal British Legion (RBL).
The service was attended by Deputy Lord Lieutenant Julie Cordon and Ian Lavery MP, who laid floral tributes alongside the Civic Head and President of RBL Ashington, Mr Al Vaziri. Ms Cordon was accompanied by her brother, Mr John McConville, Chair of the charity Brainbox. Both spoke with Cllr Ball about the charity’s work supporting children and young people affected by acquired brain injury, and their families, across Ashington and Northumberland. Veterans, members of the public, the Army Cadet Force and Ashington Sea Cadets stood proud throughout a fitting service led by Padre Major (Retired) Philip Gray, MBE, whose address reflected on the origins of the day. He noted that what is now Armed Forces Day began life in 2006 as Veterans’ Day, introduced at a time when British troops were heavily committed in Iraq and Afghanistan and investment in, and recognition of, the Armed Forces was widely felt to be low. The day was created, the Padre explained, to motivate troops serving at the time by showing them that the nation stood behind them — a message that resonates as strongly today as it did at its inception. The observance was renamed Armed Forces Day in 2009.
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