ORGANISERS of a controversial act of remembrance today hit back at their critics and said: "Your comments are an insult."

The president of the Accrington Branch of the Royal British Legion spoke after members of the town's Royal Air Force Association announced they would boycott the town's main act of remembrance for the third year running.

The RAF Association's protests were launched after the Royal British Legion decided to stage the annual Remembrance Sunday parade -- on the Sunday nearest November 11 -- at a moveable cenotaph in front of Accrington Town Hall.

The move was a bid to make the event, traditionally held at stone-built, permanent memorial in Oakhill Park, more accessible to the elderly who couldn't manage the slope up to it.

Instead of joining some 20 other organisations in Accrington town centre, the aging RAF veterans continued holding their own personal memorial in Oakhill Park -- and said the new-style service was dishonouring the dead in front of a "plastic cenotaph."

Today Doris Cassidy, president of the Accrington Royal British Legion, spoke out for the first time in defence of the new service after the RAF members vowed to repeat their service this year.

She said: "Their comments are the deepest possible insult to us. So much time, care and craftsmanship has gone into creating a cenotaph which people can get to easily.

"I am one of the younger members of the British Legion. I am only in my 70s and I couldn't get up the hill in Oakhill Park for the service. "Other groups such as the Fire Service were also unable to attend.

"So we worked with the council to create a new venue for the service which gives so many more people the chance to honour our town's war dead."

After organisations have paraded past the portable memorial, wreaths are laid in front of it. Once the memorial is dismantled, just hours after the service, the wreaths are taken up to the original war memorial, which lists the names of all of Accrington's war dead.

Alfred Hake, chairman of the Hyndburn RAF Association said: "We will not remember our fallen comrades in front of portable cenotaph. It isn't right and it is a disgrace to their memory."

Mrs Cassidy added: "The real insult and disgrace is the RAF Association's behaviour. Their comments are an insult to our work which has resulted in more and more people being able to take part in the service.

"We have had nothing but positive feedback from people.

"People should be allowed to remember the dead wherever and however they want to. We don't begrudge the RAF going to Oakhill Park and we would ask them to adopt a similar stance towards our ceremony, which has been done with only the best intentions and with a lot of thought."