The Government's Business Secretary Greg Clark has come under fire for his surprise announcement last week that he is switching the May Bank Holiday from the first Monday of the month to Friday, May 8, next year so that the country could have a long weekend to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE -Day - Victory in Europe.

Cllr Gordon Newton, who represents Downswood Ward on Maidstone council said: "He has not thought this through.

"Cancelling the traditional May Bank Holiday is going to upset the plans of a great many community fetes and events, causing huge disruption and loss of tourism income."

Mr Newton had in mind his own special event, which he helps organise every year - the Medway Sweeps Festival - which usually spreads over the three-day Bank Holiday Weekend and draws in thousands of visitors to the Medway Towns.

He said: "We will now have to cut it back to two days."

But he said it was not just his own festival he was concerned about.

"The organisers of any major community held around the May Bank holiday will already have started their planning and organisation. This announcement has come far too late."

Cllr Newton, who owns the Stone Shop in East Farleigh, has done more than most to record the sacrifices made by those who fought in the Second World War and has worked on many memorial stones and plaques across the county,

He said: "It is only proper that the nation marks VE Day. I'm not opposed to the Government announcing a Bank Holiday for that - only that it should have been in addition to the traditional May holiday not instead of it."

On May 8, 1945, Allied forces accepted Germany's surrender. The Japanese continued fighting until August 15 - VJ Day.

Mr Clark, who is the MP for Tunbridge Wells, had earlier said: "Moving next year’s early May bank holiday to VE Day itself is a right and fitting tribute. It will ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to remember and honour our heroes of the Second World War and reflect on the sacrifices of a generation."

The Maidstone Fringe Festival, the Weald of Kent Craft Fair at Penshurst Place and the Tonbridge Triathlon were all events held on the Early May Bank Holiday this year.

Earlier this year Tunbridge Wells Conservatives started a no-confidence motion in Mr Clark over his voting in Parliament.

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