CAMPAIGNERS will commemorate Hiroshima Day with events in Barrow, at Sellafield and at Wastwater.

Cumbria and Lancashire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament will mark the day on August 6, the 73rd anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

CND says the aim is to "remind people of the urgent need to rid the world of nuclear weapons".

The events will parallel those with the same purpose nearly 6,000 miles away in the Peace Park of Hiroshima, Japan where more than 50,000 people are expected to gather at the annual peace memorial ceremony.

Irene Sanderson, on behalf of Cumbria and Lancashire Area CND, said: "We are pleased to extend an open invitation to all to join us on 6 August. Musicians, singers, artists, knitters, photographers, young and old are all welcome at all or any of the events and to bring banners and flags of their own if they wish."

At 9.30am CND will meet in the car park of the Dock Museum, North Road, opposite BAE Systems Submarines. They will raise banners and invite people to sign the CND petition calling on the UK Government to sign the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

At 12.45 pm, CND will begin to gather for a vigil at 1pm at the main gate of Sellafield. At 2pm, they will be on the shores of Wastwater for a 'Peace Picnic', followed at 3pm by a ceremony of remembrance for all who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and for the suffering caused by nuclear arms, since then. Mrs Sanderson said the group scatter petals on the waters of Wastwater, "from where four million gallons are drawn daily to cool the arms race legacy of radioactive waste at Sellafield."

The Hiroshima Council of Atomic Bomb Victims Organisations, the hibakusha - the survivors of the bombing which caused the deaths of around 140,000 people, have sent the following message: "We have arrived at this date again, and this time it also marks a year since the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was passed by the United Nations. We, as victims of atomic weapons, are campaigning for this treaty to be signed and brought into effect as a matter of urgency. Cumbria and Lancashire, in the north of England, are far away from Japan but your visit and our contact with you have brought us close together. This feeling is all the stronger when we hear of the commemoration you too are making on 6 August this year. None of us can forget that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. We send our warm support for your campaign to urge the British Government to sign the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and for all your efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons so that this nightmare is never repeated. And we wish you every success with your events on this day as part of this campaign which we hope will spread throughout the United Kingdom."