Up to £3,500 will be spent on a community celebration in Ilkley to mark the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

A band will perform and afternoon tea and cake will be served from a marquee at the town’s bandstand on The Grove from 2.30pm to 5.30pm on Friday, April 29, which is a public holiday, to mark the royal nuptials.

And councillors on the town’s parish council said they wanted to underwrite the free event as a “gesture to the community.”

The decision comes just a week after the council decided to call a halt to some projects until the extent of district-wide spending cuts is known.

Money for new public toilets, a wheelchair ramp and grit bins will be put on hold until Bradford Council agrees how spending will be slashed and new parish councillors are elected in May.

But at the latest parish council meeting, councillors insisted they wanted a grand occasion to mark the royal wedding, but an event for the whole community to enjoy for free.

Councillor Stuart Goddard said he wanted to see bunting and a full celebration rather than a “half-cocked” affair. “I’m casting my mind back to the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1977 and in my mind’s eye I remember it as a wonderful event,” he said.

Council chairman, Councillor Brian Mann, backed the proposals. “If we do it, we do it as a gesture to the community and we pay for it,” he said.

Councillors unanimously backed the plan to underwrite the event to up to £3,500. To offer help or ideas, contact Councillor Mike Gibbons at mike.gibbons@bradford.gov.uk or call him on 07967 032996.

l A royal wedding party could be used in a village’s fight to stop its annual visiting party of gipsies. A committee of residents and councillors in Gargrave, near Skipton, is looking at ways to stop the travellers from moving onto the village greens for five weeks a year.

One idea is to bar the travellers’ route to the greens by closing roads for a street party to celebrate the wedding.

At the latest parish council meeting, council chairman Coun Janet Turner said in discussions with Craven District Council, North Yorkshire County Council, and the police, it had also been suggested that a party could act as a temporary solution.