A RELIGIOUS parade though a town with historic links to Christianity is under threat because authorities fear there could be an accident.

Hundreds of people took part in the March of Witness in Chester-le-Street on Good Friday.

A cross was carried from St Cuthbert's Church, in Ropery Lane, to the town centre, where a service involving five of the town's churches was held.

Special constables were drafted in to act as stewards to ensure no one was injured.

But now organisers at the Churches Together group have been told they must employ an expensive traffic management company, take out insurance and make a formal road closure application.

The ruling has come from the Chester-le-Street Safety Advisory Group, made up of representatives from the police, fire brigade, Chester-le-Street District Council and Durham County Council

A spokesman for Chester-le-Street District Council said: "It is the same for anyone who wants to organise something like this.

"Other people may feel offended if public money is used to pay for a traffic management company to oversee these events."

A police spokesman said recent policy changes meant the Town Clauses Act of 1847 was being enforced more rigorously to improve safety.

He said: "We did it this year, but we won't be doing it in the future.

"What might have been done in the past is no longer acceptable within the strict application of the act."

The body of St Cuthbert was kept at Chester-le-Street for 113 years before being transferred to Durham Cathedral.

The Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Reverend John Pritchard, said: "It sounds like PC madness.

"It is very tragic if, in a country with such a profound Christian heritage, people cannot celebrate the events of Good Friday with a seminal walk.

"It is all part of reclaiming our national identity and we need to have things like this to protect our culture.

Archdeacon of Sunderland, the Venerable Stuart Bain, said: "Marches of Witness have taken place for many years and been safe.

"I would have thought that the police and the council could do something with the churches without them having to incur great expense."