The annual dressing-up carnival, known as Pickering War Weekend, has come and gone again, but what price the freedom so many of the participants say they are trying to celebrate each year?

I had the strangest of experiences when on Saturday morning I was walking up to the Market Place in Pickering, which now has to be closed from 8am to 6pm all weekend due to the numbers descending on the town, when I was grabbed by one of the NYMR organisers and asked to move from the street, on the basis there were vehicles coming through.

I was told I was causing a disruption – I think this was because I was dressed in a garish red polka dot shirt and pink beret and did not quite fit in with the rest of the tableaux.

However, the vehicles did not come through, but a lot of other people dressed up in strange clothes did. The nice thing was, as I was escorted off the public road, I was allowed to stand next to a very important man in an Army jeep at the end of the street where I live.

Everyone was pleased to see us and saluted as they walked past – I think it was the pink beret they liked. The reason to highlight this situation is to again show there are many people in Pickering who are not happy with the disruption this weekend causes. Perhaps organisers need to refocus it on the showground where there is lots of space for people to enjoy looking at each other’s nice clothes?

I realise that might affect the numbers of people accessing the railway over the weekend, but if we have got to the stage where NYMR employees are willing to grab hold of people to move them off the public road, we are maybe at a stage where the whole thing needs looking at again.

There is, of course, a serious side in contrast to this celebration of war, set against the current increasing number of conflicts in the world. Hopefully, there is room in your paper to enable this discussion to be had, by those more eloquent than myself.

John Lawson, Pickering