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Peter Davies, the mayor of Doncaster, has made a u-turn on a promise he made at the start of the month to cut funding for Doncaster Pride.
In a live interview with Toby Foster on BBC Radio Sheffield, Davies - an English Democrat who was only elected to Doncaster council the week before - said he would ‘cut back on politically correct jobs’ such as diversity officers. Foster’s questions about Davies’ election promises left the mayor floundering for answers. He had to concede that he couldn’t guarantee any of his promises could actually be made to work before terminating the interview.
His office later said: ‘I must be very clear that my party and I are not homophobic or racist or hold any extremist views. The English Democrats believe that public money should not be spent on parades that promote one section of society. That doesn’t mean to say that the English Democrats are against homosexuals as we most certainly are not and we will be delighted to see the gay and lesbian community in Doncaster.’
On June 12th he released the following statement: ‘The Gay Pride event has been planned for some time and the funding already committed. In the circumstances, I believe I should honour this commitment and the event will go ahead. I will continue to work with the Pride Committee. My main concern for my term is that we get value for money from public spend on quality front line services.’
A spokeswoman from the Doncaster Pride committee said: ‘Doncaster Pride committee is very happy with the outcome of the discussions we’ve had with the council since the election. We have secured the commitment to fund this year’s event and also to open dialogue to discuss future years events as well as wider lgbt issues, so that we can continue to provide a great day out for Pride as well as give our community a voice on important issues. We thank everyone for their support, help and solidarity and wish to express our thanks to the officers within the council who have assisted us come to this positive solution.’
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