THE council is being urged to make Warrington 'a town pledged to peace' as part of its 2021 City of Culture bid.

Former mayor Geoff Settle will present a question on the matter to councillors at the full council meeting on Monday, June 19.

It is: "Will the council include as part of the 2021 City of Culture, or earlier, the promise to use the 'Pledge to Peace' pack and make Warrington a town pledged to peace?"

It's just over a year since Mr Settle met the visiting mayor and mayoress of Oldham at the Peace Centre.

They told Mr Settle that they had been 'inspired' to apply for the Pledge to Peace by Nick Taylor, chief executive of the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace, when he visited Oldham.

Mr Settle said: "The civic party included the secretary of the campaign, Richard Outram, and councillor for peace Cllr Derek Heffernan, who is now Mayor of Oldham.

"They asked if Warrington Borough Council would also sign up to the Brussels Declaration and follow their lead.

"My first thought was 'this is like bringing coals to Newcastle' and I duly passed on the request and documentation to the council's (then) deputy chief executive Katherine Fairclough.

"She agreed that it was something long overdue, especially with the work that Colin and Wendy Parry, Cllr Mike Hannon, the Rev Steven Kingsnorth, Nick Taylor, Adrian Derbyshire and many others have done.

"The Pledge to Peace question has been approved by the monitoring officer and included in the summons for June 19.

"Hopefully it will lead to Warrington taking up the challenge and following Oldham's example and becoming only the second place in the UK to Pledge to Peace."