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City row over cancelled parade
A row has broken out over a cancelled St George's Day parade by thousands of city schoolchildren and residents.
The two-mile route through Girlington and Manningham in Bradford for the April 23 event was deliberately chosen to encompass an area hit by the riots in 2001.
A neighbourhood policing team school liaison officer gave details of the parade as far back as November and said it had the backing of the Council of Mosques and the District Interfaith Forum.
Schools had prepared flags and one Bradford councillor, Qasim Khan, (Liberal Democrat, Manningham), estimated that up to10,000 people might have taken part.
But with just days to go, the police have pulled the plug on the event and an alternative date of July 1 has been offered.
The Rev Tony Tooby, vicar of Girlington said he was "enraged" by the decision. He was attacked by a mob of youths and pelted with missiles and had racial abuse shouted at him following the Bradford riots in 2001. His church was torched and vandalised.
He said: "The council have put pressure on the police to cancel it. I want the police to come out into the open and tell us why the parade has been cancelled.
"This is saying that the thugs are winning everything and that the community has not got over the riots. Are we a community gripped by fear?
"The authorities can't put their heads in the sand and say you can't do anything that might upset someone. We were supposed to be walking two miles and instead we were told we could march down one street."
The chairman of the English Democrats in Bradford and Calderdale, Coun Paul Rogan, (Rastrick), said: "Offering an alternative date for the St George's Day Parade is like offering an alternative date for Christmas in the summer."
Shipley Tory MP Philip Davies added said: "It is absolute madness. This was an event designed to promote integration – you would have thought the authorities would have embraced it with both hands."
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "A member of the Neighbourhood Policing Team was involved in the early stages of planning the parade.
"This is being dealt with by a group of community members, and is not a police event. Routes were offered to allow a smaller St George's Day Parade to go ahead, but these were rejected by the organisers, who are seeking a more substantial parade to celebrate community cohesion in post-riot Bradford. The parade has not been cancelled but postponed."
Bradford Council's deputy chief executive, Jo Miller, said: "When we were approached to support a St George's Day parade and celebration in Lister Park we thought this was a really good idea and saw it as a positive event for Bradford.
"We asked the organisers to develop their planning as we would for any such event. Since February we have been asking for their plans around the route, risk assessment and stewarding plans but unfortunately our requests have not been met.
"The police advised, and we agreed, that time was very short for people to meet the necessary requirements for things to happen safely, especially with the number of children taking part.
"As we were so keen for a St George's Day celebration to go ahead we suggested some alternative routes at a community meeting at Toller Lane Police Station last week but these were not acceptable.
"Our emergency planning team will continue to work with the community, who have advised us that they wish to hold the parade on July 1."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
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Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
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