A £1m Poppy Day fundraiser has been cancelled because of the upcoming rail strikes.
The Royal British Legion (RBL) announced its London Poppy Day event “will not go ahead as planned” on 3 November due to strike action being taken by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union.
The charity, which supports veterans of the armed forces and their families, is now “urgently considering alternative arrangements to lessen the impact” from the loss of funds.
The event would have seen up to 2,000 personnel, veterans and volunteers hosting bucket collections across 70 different locations, from train and tube stations to office blocks and out on the streets.
It would have also featured musical performances from 10 military bands across a range of locations.
The RBL is heavily reliant on volunteers to raise “crucial funds” to sustain its help to veterans and the yearly event aims to raise £1 million in a day.
London Poppy Day taken place every year on the first Thursday of November since 2006.
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Simon O’Leary, the RBL’s Poppy Appeal director, said: “London Poppy Day is one of the most important days in our annual remembrance calendar.
“It is a huge logistical operation across the capital taking significant planning and resource, which we are now unfortunately in the process of cancelling and informing our volunteers to stand down.”
The event was nearly cancelled for the same reason back in 2016, but the charity has said it was “grateful to the RMT on that occasion for rearranging the strike action”.
This year however, the RMT has confirmed the strike will still be going ahead on 3 November.
Read more: November rail strikes to cause disruption – here’s which lines are affected
Railway workers are due to stage strikes at 14 train operating companies in early November in a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions.
This includes an RMT-organised walk out on 3 and 5 November, which coincides with strikes across Network Rail, London Underground and London Overground.
After a summer of strikes, this continuation of industrial action will inevitably create widespread disruption to services across the country.
The following 14 train operating companies will continue striking over the next month: Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains and GTR (including Gatwick Express).
