Pride London chair stands down

The chair of Pride London has resigned following criticism of the group's handling of WorldPride 2012.

Dr Patrick Williams stood down as chair, with long-standing board member Tony Hughes taking over in the interim.

Pride London has come in for a great deal of criticism after scaling back the WorldPride event to a walking parade and gathering in Trafalgar Square.

Planned events in Soho have been scrapped altogether, the time of the parade moved back from 1pm to 11am, vehicles and floats banned from the parade and the Trafalgar Square event will finish at 6pm.

Pride London has blamed a lack of sponsorship for the inability to hold all the events previously promised.

Pride London said for the first time agencies involved with the event such as the city council, police and fire brigade had asked for "concrete assurances" the group had the funds to pay their upfront costs.

The organisation told the press the funding shortfall which led to the scaling-back had arisen “not because we have a lack of pledged funds, but because we were unable to collect enough funds from those pledged to provide the strict financial assurances.”

A last minute attempt by Gaydar and Smirnoff to inject funds and save some events was unsuccessful when they were told that licensing for the event could not be reinstated at short notice.

Meanwhile Lord Mayor of London Boris Johnson has caused resentment by announcing he will not be attending WorldPride, despite the city council injecting 100,000 pounds into the event.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who helped organise London’s first pride event in 1972 said, “It’s quite appalling that the Mayor of London is refusing to attend this year’s WorldPride. London is the host city, he’s the mayor, Boris should be at the front of the parade."