UP TO 100 gipsies descended on Horsmonden with horses on Sunday in protest at the ban on their traditional horse fair in the village.

The fair was banned last year by the parish council over fears it would take too many police resources to ensure people's safety. But at least 50 police officers were on hand at weekend to control the protest, while village shops and pubs remained closed during the day.

A Weald police spokeswoman said there was concern that the horses would block the roads and that children could be hurt by horses being ridden on the green.

The arrival of seven horses in the village caused tailbacks along Maidstone Road late in the morning.

The spokeswoman said there had been a history of violence at the fair, including a stabbing, and added that the protesters were breaking a bylaw by bringing livestock on to the village green.

Representatives from the parish council and the Gipsy Council met on the village green on Sunday morning. But parish council chairman Cllr Neil Robins later refused to hold an interview with the BBC while Charles Smith, chairman of the Gipsy Council, was near him.

Mr Smith said: "We are protesting against the closure of our fair which has been going on for hundreds of years. We are doing this for our children and grandchildren, to carry on a centuries-old tradition."

He said the parish council had not consulted villagers and visitors to the fair before banning the event, and that gipsies would carry out a door-to-door in the village asking people if they supported the fair.

Gipsy spokesman Mick Harrington, of Leeds, said: "We're all local people from Kent and the fair's been going on for a long, long time, hundreds of years."

He said the parish council had turned the traditional fair into a market with stalls, only to find that it had become too difficult to control.

The gipsies plan to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights to see the fair preserved.

No-one from Horsmonden Parish Council was willing to comment on the day's events.