GUESTS at tomorrow's Freedom of the Borough ceremony for the Queen's Lancashire Regiment will tuck into good old-fashioned potato pie after the event, at the special request of the soldiers involved.

Hyndburn Council is awarding the Freedom of the Borough to the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in recognition of the outstanding sacrifice made by the Accrington Pals (11th Service Battalion) at the Battle of the Somme in World War One.

And when the regiment was asked what it would most like to eat at the historic celebrations the soldiers opted for the firm Lancashire favourite.

The exciting and spectacular event will see the Queens Lancashire Regiment exercise their freedom of the borough by marching through Accrington town centre accompanied by the Queens Division Normandy Band. The freedom scroll and casket will be presented outside the town hall at 11.45am.

There will be over four hundred soldiers on parade with the Battalions Core of Drums, accompanied by two Saxon armoured personnel carriers, and two Sabre armoured reconnaissance vehicles. They will also be accompanied by their old comrades, with standards and elements of the combined Cadet Force.

This will be the last time in 10 years that the regiment will be able to parade in such strength, as next year they deploy to Bosnia, before being posted to Cyprus for a two year tour and then on to Germany. For the duration of the celebrations a number of roads in Accrington town centre will be closed by police to carry out searches of the area.

In particular all vehicles must be removed from Blackburn Road -- between Eagle Street and Church Street -- and Union Road by 11am tomorrow or they will be towed away by police.

Motorists will be able to use the Arndale Centre car park, but will be unable to leave around 12.10 when the procession passes by. The School Street car park will be closed to traffic from 8am until 2pm.

Michael Carney, chairman of the Hyndburn Chamber of Trade, said: "It will cause inconvenience and some disruption with being on a Saturday but this inconvenience pales into insignificance compared with what those men gave up."