COUNCIL bosses today vowed to push ahead with plans to allow a town's small Muslim community to hold weekly worship in their chamber despite a far-right protest.

Around 20 extremists waving racist placards gathered outside Ribble Valley Town Hall in Church Street, Clitheroe, yesterday lunchtime.

They were protesting at plans by the council to allow Muslims to use the council chamber once a week for prayers.

The move follows four rejections of planning applications to use a terrace house in Holden Street as a mosque.

The protest began when a cherry-picker adorned with slogans promoting a far-right party started circling the town centre.

It became stuck in Church Street, a narrow one-way road with cars parked on either side,

Then a man using a loud speaker began shouting: "Clitheroe does not want a mosque." They went on to play an anti-Muslim, anti-asylum seeker song set to the tune of the The Wurzels' I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester.

Then around 20 placard-waving protesters appeared, mainly pensioners, in the street outside the town hall.

Most of the protesters came from outside the borough, with just three admitting they were from Clitheroe.

The protest passed off peacefully, although tempers were raised when one shopper angrily accused the protesters of forgetting that cultural ignorance led to the Second World War. Ivan Duxbury, spokesman for the far-right group which organised the protest, said people in the town did not want a mosque.

Council leader John Hill today said the council had no plans to change its mind.

He said: "It was a regrettable incident outside the town hall."

Inspector Bob Ford, of Clitheroe Police, said the event passed peacefully, watched by officers.