'DISRESPECTFUL' Oak Mall bosses have been blasted by 'disgusted' shoppers who say they failed to hold an Armistice Day silence — and blared out POP MUSIC instead.
As public places throughout the country fell silent in honour of the fallen at 11am on November 11, the Mall had the song 'There She Goes Again' playing on its PA system, the Telegraph has been told.
Gibshill woman Lisa McIntyre told of her 'shock' as she told that there was no announcement and no two-minute silence on Friday.
Lisa, 54, said: "My great grandpa Andrew Sommerville Cleary died at Dunkirk.
"What the Mall did, or actually didn't do, is totally and utterly disrespectful and disgusting.
"I mean, they were playing music when the place should have been in total silence.
"It's just ridiculous.
"They should at the very least apologise to the whole town."
Lisa added: "I was with my cousin and a pal and they went over to complain to a security guard who just shrugged and told them it would be marked on Sunday.
"There's no excuse for not marking the Armistice.
"They should have done it on the day and on Sunday as well."
Another woman who was in the Mall on Friday said: "It's the 11th of the 11th today. The security guard said they'd have a silence on Sunday, but that's not the point.
"There was an elderly man sitting on one of the benches wearing his glengarry and medals and he was obviously waiting for the two-minute silence.
"There were quite a few people standing waiting for it, me and my friend included.
"It's terrible that the Mall didn't mark the Armistice.
"They must be the talk of the town.
"They should be thinking black burning shame on themselves. It's a terrible lack of respect."
The shopping centre was caught not marking the Armistice before.
We told in 2015 how outraged shoppers and Armed Forces representatives branded Mall bosses 'crass' for playing Christmas music on Remembrance Sunday.
Following the centre's ignorance of the Armistice seven years ago, shopper Isobel Lamont said: "Brave people died years ago for their country and also in the present day as well and it is only right that these people should be honoured.
"Two minutes is nothing out of your life to give in memory and tribute to the fallen."
Stuart Rumble of the Royal British Legion said: "I think it is abhorrent that a public establishment such as the Oak Mall in Greenock can't observe a two-minute silence."
The Telegraph phoned the Mall on Friday to be told by a member of security staff that the intention was to hold a silence on Remembrance Sunday.
We emailed the shopping centre's PR department for an official comment but had not received a response at time of going to press.
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