RED flags mingled with a huge multi-coloured scarf at Burnley’s annual May Day celebrations in Towneley Park.

Borough council leader and prospective MP Coun Julie Cooper gave the keynote speech, following the traditional procession from the town hall.

She was joined on the platform by two Labour European election candidates, Burnley councillor Wajid Khan and his colleague Julie Ward, who formerly worked at Mid Pennine Arts locally.

The trio were joined by Mike Lavette, from the People’s Assembly. Burnley’s May Day gathering is one of the few to be held every year since the bank holiday was created in 1978 and was supported by a fun fair, stalls and magic and dog agility acts.

But it was a giant woollen creation fashioned by East Lancashire CND members which caught the imagination of many visitors.

Part of a ‘Knit for Peace’ initiative, the huge scarf has been stitched together by volunteers from across the area.

Speaking before the event, CND’s Joan West, from Great Harwood, said: “The group is involved in a CND nationwide campaign to connect the atomic weapons factories of Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire with a seven-mile peace scarf.

“This is to express the public’s opposition to these weapons-producing sites and to pledge to work for peace.”

If anyone wants to know more about the ‘Wool Against Weapons’ scarf, or contribute their own piecework, they can contact Joan via e-mail via joanewest@sky.com The scarf will be unveiled in Berkshire on Saturday, August 9, which is the anniversary of the Second World War atomic bombing of Nagasaki in Japan.