The battle for Wootton Bassett | Neil Burden

From bikers to Islam4UK, many seek to exploit Wootton Bassett's 'homeland' mystique – but its neutrality is precious

I have recently discovered the hugely unwelcome news (courtesy of an RAC road sign) that over 10,000 bikers plan to invade Wootton Bassett next Sunday, Mothering Sunday. As residents of the high street for the past 20 years, this is particularly vexing to my family. The children may have to review the planned family day at home, and take the cards, chocolates and flowers elsewhere in an attempt to escape the fumes, the noise and the congestion.

What is particularly perplexing about all this, however, is that this invasion is apparently sanctioned by the police, Wiltshire council and the MoD. The town council were not consulted. Nor were the residents. It turns out that the rally is taking place under the aegis of the charity known as Afghan Heroes. According to its website, by arranging for 10,331 registered (and who knows how many unregistered) bikers to thunder along the high street, it is "honouring the people of Wootton Bassett and the soldiers who have lost their lives in Afghanistan".

No one can argue against our population honouring anyone who puts their life on the line in the defence of this country and its values, whether or not they agree with the particular escapade on which those lives are lost. I hope that Afghan Heroes is also offering the victims of the war whatever practical and financial support that this government hasn't, and I have no issue with them raising funds for this purpose by any legal means.

I can't imagine, however, why they think that creating an unimaginable nuisance outside my front door is in any way "honouring" me. In fact, I don't actually need to be "honoured" for attending a number of the repatriations, and I haven't even been asked whether I want to be respected in this curious way. I imagine that I am being "honoured" in the same way as I was "honoured" in January by the upstanding members of the English Defence League and their pitbulls, who graced our high street one grey Sunday afternoon following an internet rumour that Islam4UK were going to stage an impromptu rally – on a weekend, coincidentally, that many football matches were cancelled owing to wintry weather.

I wish I failed to understand why the rally is picking on Wootton Bassett. Sadly, it's all too obvious that the town is becoming a "homeland" symbol that confers respectability on those who can prove or imply an association, an association that such honoraries as Nick Griffin have recently attempted to exploit. The gatherings for the repatriations began quietly, honestly, almost accidentally. Due in no small part to the sterling efforts of the town council, they continue to be mostly genuine, spontaneous and apolitical, but the attempted politicisation by the media and those who seek the town's reflected glory has been relentless. (The town now even has its own flagstaff flying the Union Jack, which mysteriously appeared overnight in the days before the visit of Charles and Camilla.)

The bigger question is: what message will this rally give out? Will it simply honour the dead and the respecters of the dead, or will it imply a call to arms? There's a massive difference between a repatriation and a rally. Ten thousand motorbikes throbbing through the town will be noisy, smelly, thrilling, almost martial – miles away from the quiet, spontaneous and reflective commemorations of young lives lost prematurely.

Back in January, Islam4UK abandoned its widely criticised plans to hold a rally through the town, the ostensible purpose of which would have been to raise awareness and promote discussion of the wider issues of the war. While that is doubtless a debate that should be had more frequently, it was right not to have it in Wootton Bassett, thereby preserving the town's neutrality. The Afghan Heroes parade would be a blow to Wootton Bassett's quiet, unassuming decency and neutrality from which the town may never recover.