IT is dark and dank and an embarrassment to East Fremantle.

So says a nearby resident of the Memorial Rose Garden on Preston Point Road which commemmorates local men who gave their lives in World War II.

With Anzac Day just weeks away the resident—who asks not to be named—says the park is a disgrace.

“This crappy place is meant to be the town of East Fremantle’s official—and only—memorial.

“I see a couple of old guys come every now and then and they seem to pay their respects, but the bench isn’t in the best nick, the brick paving’s all lifting and the roses are barely alive.

“The roses don’t get any light because of this huge Moreton Bay fig tree—even the gardeners despair.

“The council told me last year they would prune the tree—nobody wants to see the tree removed—but here we are a couple of weeks from Anzac Day and the place looks very shabby.”

Council CEO Stuart Wearne says the lifted paving “will be attended to before Anzac Day” but concedes the roses are an intractable problem.

“It was never a good idea to plant roses under that tree,” he told the Herald.

“If it comes to it between the roses and the tree, the roses will go. That’s a magnificent tree in my view and an arborist thought it was a magnificent tree.

“It has been suggested that it might not be a good idea to prune the tree.”

Mr Wearne says the council receives complaints every year about the memorial.

“This is what happens every Anzac Day and before every Anzac Day the council tidies up the park.

“The mayor and councillors will go down there and fly the flag. We get a handful of people—it’s very small and intimate.

“We’ve never had a single complaint from the RSL, and in fact they are very supportive and grateful for us (looking after the park).”

RSL chief Philip Orchard says the council has been “very receptive to the issues raised by the resident, especially the paving”.

by EDDIE ALBRECHT