A GROUP of women in Newtown, have been busy making their own flags as they prepare to take part in a procession that celebrates the centenary of the Suffragette Movement and when the first group of women in the UK were allowed the vote.

The group from Llys Glanyrafon, Newtown Extra Care Home, will be taking part in the Cardiff march, which will start from the Cardiff City Football Stadium at 2pm on Sunday, June 10 when it is expected that thousands of women will march on to Bute Park.

Similar events are taking place in Belfast, Edinburgh and London.

The marchers will be dressed in suffragette colours - Green for Give, White for Women and Violet for Vote.

To prepare for the event, Newtown history Group Member, Joy Hames and her friends have been busy making flags to wave during the procession.

Newtown mayor, Cllr Sue Newham, said: "I am so grateful for the sacrifice and hard work of women and men to secure the vote for women 100 years ao.

"Even with the Representation of the People Act in 1918, only women of the age of 30 who owned property could vote.

"it was another 10 years until women could vote on an equal footing with men.

Cllr Newham added: "It shocks me to realise that my great-grandmother could not have voted in local elections, let alone become the Mayor of her town.

"Fairness and equality have become core values of our national character and we must never let that commitment to equality become eroded."