Keighley Gala procession has been saved thanks to an influx of volunteer helpers.

But the route of the annual parade will have to be moved drastically to beat traffic regulations.

The procession will now miss out North Street and Cavendish Street and instead use Worth Way and East Parade.

The move will allow buses to get in and out of the bus station during the two hours that some town centre roads are closed to traffic.

Gala committee chairman Brian Hudson said the alternative route had already been approved by bodies like the police, Bradford Council and bus operators.

The gala committee reluctantly agreed to the new route at a crisis meeting on Tuesday night.

It also heard that about seven people had come forward to help organise the parade and several others would be available to marshal on the day.

Mr Hudson said the gala committee had been told that 90 buses leave the station while the procession is running.

In order to use the traditional procession route, the committee would have had to pay £2,000 for the administration costs of re-routing traffic.

There would be no such cost for using the new route, which will see the procession turning right at Goulbourne Street, then down Worth Way and East Parade to rejoin the existing route at the bottom of Cavendish Street.

Mr Hudson said: “In some ways it might be an easier route. There would be a lot fewer road signs and cones to put out.

“There wouldn’t be much difference in the distance, but people who want to see it will have to move across town.”

Mr Hudson said pubs on the old route could lose custom and the main access to Morrison’s supermarket would be blocked while the procession passed.