The appeal by West Yorkshire Police to councils to abandon plans for organised celebrations on Millennium Eve seems to be based on the false presumption that if official events are scrapped, people will not take to the streets to celebrate.

The reality is that they will. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to mark what many see as the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one. December 31, spilling over to January 1, will be a party time like few other party times. The nation will let down its hair. That will happen whether the police like it or not.

It is perhaps a little unfair to label them as killjoys. Their concerns that they and other emergency services might not be able to cope with the consequences of midnight revelry on a massive scale are understandable. They have studied what has happened in places like Trafalgar Square and Edinburgh and know that a high level of resources is needed to cope with major crowds who gather in city centres, particularly when large quantities of alcohol are likely to have been consumed.

Yet even if Bradford Council was to abandon any plans for celebrations in Centenary Square, there is little doubt that on the night it will be packed with people. It might well be easier for the police to control those people if they are there as part of an official, organised event with a theme and a programme rather than as members of independent groups determined to have a good time in their own way.

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