Dignitaries have been excluded from participating in a memorial service for the first time in 85 years.

New Malden councillors have held an official role in proceedings, performing readings and processing in robes, at the memorial service at Christ Church in Coombe Road since 1926.

This year the church will be holding two services for Remembrance Sunday, at 9.30am and 10.45am, but Reverend Stephen Kuhrt has decided neither will involve councillors. He said: “It’s certainly different this year but the important thing I want to emphasise is that we are still marking the occasion.

"Remembrance is taken extremely seriously. The difference this year is the councillors aren’t going to be in attendance.

"I felt it was hypocritical and not helpful to involve the councillors, that’s the only difference.

"It has been a tradition in Christ Church in the past but things have to move on and things don’t have to be done in the same way. The crucial thing here is remembrance."

New Malden councillors threw out plans to demolish and redevelop the Church’s Victorian vicarage, which has not been lived in for five years, in May this year.

The church held a service to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Malden Blitz last year and in October this year installed a cherry tree and brass plaque in New Malden High Street as a permanent reminder of the horrific bombings which devastated the town during the war.