Farron confirms bright future for Torchlight after discussions with Cumbria Police

Tim Farron met last week with Cumbria's Chief Constable Craig Mackey to press for reassurances about the future of Kendal's popular torchlight procession.

It had been reported that the Torchlight carnival could be threatened by a Police decision to charge the Torchlight organisers for the policing costs - said to have been in the region of £15,000. A charge of this kind could make the carnival unaffordable and lead to the event being cancelled in 2011.

However, Tim has now secured a promise from the Chief Constable that the police will work to ensure that any charge will be much smaller and will centre more on negotiating the cost of traffic management surrounding the event.

Tim said, "For me, Torchlight is a highlight for our community and I was very worried when I heard it maybe under threat from a charge for policing costs. The police do an outstanding job at Torchlight, but this is a non-commercial community event and it would be quite wrong to burden the organisers with a big charge."

"I will be working hard with local police to ensure that arrangements are made to ensure that there is no or limited charge."