SIR - I recently moved to the Craven Area.

On Saturday June 23, I bought my first copy of the Craven Herald and Pioneer and was both amazed and distressed by the front page article and the reported comments and attitudes of the councillors who unanimously rejected the proposal to include white poppies ('White poppies bid by Mayor rejected').

Cllr Hickman correctly commented that in 1918 the nation celebrated Peace, not the war that had just ended, and this was a view shared by all people from nations involved in the conflict.

In fact, what we now call War memorials were originally Peace memorials reflecting this commonly-held view.

In 1929 there was much interest in changing the focus of red poppies to Peace.

White poppies have indeed been worn by thousands for over 80 years; the comment that this is 'pseudo popularist rubbish' is both ill-informed and offensive.

Both red and white poppies commemorate dead soldiers but the white explicitly advocates that wars causing such tragedies should stop - a view widely held across the world and in Craven where a mixture of both on behalf of the town should be advisedly, and sensitively, considered.

I suggest that it is 'shocking' and 'disrespectful' to commemorate the dead at a Remembrance Service and not to acknowledge and respect the cause for which they died.

Similarly, it is disrespectful to those at home who celebrated the longed-for peace notwithstanding their individual personal losses and those who work today in the cause of peace.

Sue Cariss, Rathmell