A LAST-ditch meeting will take place tomorrow in a bid to save a Gwent town's Remembrance Sunday parade.

Veterans from Newbridge will meet members of Caerphilly council tomorrow afternoon after members of the Royal British Legion vowed to call off the parade last week.

Caerphilly council said that in order to comply with health and safety regulations, roads around Parry’s Square, Newbridge, should be closed for an hour-and-a-quarter on November 9 as the 100-strong parade assembles.

But members of the Royal British Legion Newbridge branch said the march and service normally take around two hours and the small time scale the council has allowed them would not even give them enough time to form for the two-minute silence.

Members last week decided to call off the march, which will make it the first time since 1926 that they have not been involved, saying the restrictions were an insult to the many men who have fought and died for their country.

Former RAF man and president of the Newbridge branch of the Royal British Legion, Bill Pinney, said residents were “up in arms” about the council’s proposed restrictions on the parade and said he hoped the matter would be resolved at today’s meeting.

He said: “This has gone on long enough. If the conditions on the parade are not what we consider to be honourable to the many who died and those who are fighting today then we would be unable to march with it.

“But if they are sensible and say go ahead as normal then the march will take place and hopefully that will be the end of it.”

A spokesman for Caerphilly council confirmed it had agreed another meeting and said it was looking to resolve the situation as a matter of urgency.