I HAVE just heard that Sacred Heart and St Barnabas’ churches have been forbidden by the council from meeting-up outside Sacred Heart church and processing into town on Walking Day, ahead of the walk.

They have been told people must make their own way into town, as individuals, and assemble on the Town Hall lawns ready for ‘the off ’.

The reason is cited as being ‘costs involved’.

Apparently this only affects our area, as the much longer walk into town for the procession, by Christ Church, Latchford, and St James’, will still be ok, even though it must cost more to oversee.

And then there’s Civic Sunday and Regimental Sunday, not to mention St Patrick’s Day – all the various events that showcase our town and which involve road-closures – and the costs that this involves.

I thought we were a town that valued its heritage.

Didn’t we talk about being the City of Culture only a matter of weeks ago ?

Some culture we seem to have here.

I’m forced to wonder if the cost element is really the case, or if our council secretly longs to see the end of Walking Day, being a purely Christian festival, but hasn’t got the guts to admit it.

BANK QUAY LAD