A CHURCH leader has hit out at plans to extend the hours of Northallerton May Fair.

The Rev John Parker says allowing the event to go on until 8pm on the Sunday, instead of 5pm, would wreck evening worship.

He says there have already been problems with people "running around and shouting obscenities as we pray".

He praised a town council decision to oppose the move.

The Showmen's Guild, which operates the fair, wants longer hours to compete with other similar attractions in North Yorkshire. It won an extension to 5pm for millennium year and the practice has stuck. Guild members think the Sunday operation has worked well.

Now Hambleton District Council is asking for views on the latest proposal.

At Monday's town council meeting, the mayor, Coun Tony Hall, said: "I would not want this. We have gone far enough with allowing 5pm. With respect to the churches and residents, 8pm is pushing it on a Sunday."

Coun David Blades said: "When the proposal for a 5pm extension was first made three years ago, I felt then it was the thin end of the wedge.

"I predicted that something like this would happen."

Coun Blades, who is the district council's cabinet environment spokesman, said he had asked for noise from the fair to be monitored as over the years he felt the event had got louder.

"You can hear it a mile from the town," he said. "I am not against the May Fair, but we should call a halt and maintain our standards."

Mr Parker, minister of the United Reformed Church, off High Street, was at the meeting. He said he had written to the district council to say church elders were against the extension.

"We already get people running around shouting obscenities as we are praying and in worship," he said. "We have pleaded with Hambleton to refuse this. We are in favour of the May Fair. We have no problems with the event and agreed to the 5pm extension. But to go further would destroy worship, which is equally important to the town as the May Fair."

Councillors agreed to tell the district council they wanted to see the scheme refused.

After the meeting, Mr Parker said: "We have tried to fit every which way. When they asked for a 5pm extension, we did not want to be seen as killjoys and agreed. But we do suffer at other times of the year, as the alleyway to our church is a haven for vandals, although things have calmed down recently."

He added: "Mixing this extension with all-day drinking is going to cause us real problems for worship.

"I love the fair. There has even been a service on the dodgems run by Churches Together. But we have never been asked to put aside evening worship."

Northallerton Methodist Church minister the Rev Keith Phipps said he too had written to the district council giving his views.