A leading politician is calling for a nationalist march to be banned from Brighton seafront for fear that it will damage trade.
The annual March for England is due to take place on Sunday 27 April.
This is despite a police operation last year that cost £500,000 but that could not prevent demonstrators and anti-fascist groups clashing.
With both sides now issuing rallying calls in the lead up to this year’s event, Geoffrey Theobald, leader of the Conservative opposition group on Brighton and Hove City Council, has called for the march to be cancelled – or if not, rerouted.
Councillor Theobald said: “We are very much against this and I have emailed those in charge to say as much.
“I don’t think it is appropriate in our city centre and on the seafront. This is our shop window and this event no doubt puts people off coming to our city and spending money.
“It is also a disastrous day for those businesses along the front.”
Councillor Theobald added that he had lobbied the local authority to ban the march from the seafront last year but said that this plea “seems to have been ignored”.
