PLANS for a huge official firework display - which was expected to attract thousands of people - have gone up in smoke just days before it was due to go ahead.

The shock, short-notice decision leaves hundreds of Walkden families in the lurch prompting fears of dozens of unsupervised garden bonfires and ultimately scores of casualties.

The annual display, organised by the Worsley and District Round Table, has attracted thousands to Parr Fold Park, off Walkden Road, for a quarter of a century and was due to go ahead tomorrow (Friday).

But The Round Table says it has been forced to shelve plans due to a new policy by Salford City Council, which supports the event, to charge just over £1,000 to help pay for council workers to steward the display and ensure it goes ahead safely.

Round Table members insist they can't afford the fee and do not have the manpower to provide all the stewards themselves.

Residents will now have to choose between trekking to the other side of Salford for the council's official Buile Hill Park display, or holding amateur displays in their back gardens.

Norman Barwood, of the Round Table, said a team of qualified pyrotechnicians had been hired for the Parr Fold Park event and told us: "I think it's going to make a lot of people go out and buy fireworks themselves and set them off in their own gardens. With the best will in the world there are going to be accidents."

Mr Barwood said when a similar situation forced the event to be cancelled three years ago, hundreds of disappointed people turned up at the park expecting a display and had to be turned away.

However the council's lead member for education and leisure Cllr Eddie Sheehy insisted the organisers knew some time ago that they would be charged.

"We told them this when at the start by saying we were quite happy to give them some help but we would not be able to provide it all for free. They were told this all the way along. They've suddenly decided they can't go along with the cost. The city council has a policy not to fund any charitable projects in order to be fair and equitable to all."

Walkden's Cllr Val Burgoyne, who was surprised the event wasn't going ahead, added: "I'm disappointed there's not going to be a bonfire but I can understand the financial reasons."

Fire brigade spokesman station officer Ian Bailey urged: "We would advise people to go to an organised bonfire where they are more likely to be adhering to safety standards than somebody who has set up their bonfire in their own back yard where there's more likelihood that it would go out of control and spread through adjacent gardens."