Remembrance Sunday services in Portsmouth, Havant, Fareham and Gosport scaled back

Services across the area will be livestreamed with people urged to hold their own two-minute silence at their doorsteps instead of thousands of people gathering together.

The Guildhall Square commemoration in Portsmouth, usually attracting 8,000 people, will be replaced by a smaller invite-only event in Portsmouth Cathedral.

The service next month will be livestreamed at 11am so anyone outside of the around 150 people invited can still watch.

Portsmouth City Council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson said not many of the ‘great and the good’ will be invited to boost seats available for veterans.

He said: ‘We will try to do everything to make sure the maximum number of veterans will be there.

‘I know some places are not doing anything but it seems to me that’s just not possible in Portsmouth - we’re a military city and we have to do this properly.

‘We’re trying to do it in a way that’s sensible and not putting people at risk - we’ve got to be careful.’

He said around ‘75 couples’ can be accommodated in a socially-distanced way at the Anglican cathedral.

People and organisations who normally lay wreaths will still be invited, as will the naval base commander and group council leaders.

A choir will still perform but the congregation cannot join in singing, Councillor Vernon-Jackson added.

‘It’s absolutely vital that we remember people’s sacrifice - we are a military city - that’s why Portsmouth exists,’ he said.

‘We’re the home of the Royal Navy and we have to do this but we’ve got to do it in a way that’s responsible and recognises the risk of infection.’

A virtual ceremony will take place in Gosport, with a livestream of wreaths being placed at the Fleet Air Arm memorial and Sunken Gardens in Lee-on-the-Solent, and at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Bury Road.

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An invite-only service will be held at Holy Trinity Church in West Street, Fareham, with a choir. Wreaths will be placed at the war memorial by Cllr Sean Woodward, council leader, and the mayor.

Havant’s mayor will take part in a closed ceremony at St Faith’s Church and this will be livestreamed, with video of services in Emsworth and Hayling Island also played.

People have been urged to ‘hold your two-minute silence at your doorstep’ instead of attending public spaces.

In Havant people can place wreaths at Tommy statues in the borough or the memorial in the lead up to Remembrance Sunday.

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