AFTER seven years, some of the fun is to be taken out of a special day in Bedale marking the run-up to Christmas.

The chamber of trade has confirmed that this year's fun day on Saturday, November 29, will be a drastically scaled-down affair because of concern by some traders about the loss of parking spaces in the town centre to special attractions.

The annual event was launched in 1996, with the production of what was believed to have been the largest Christmas pudding ever seen in the town, in an attempt to attract more visitors to Bedale a year after the introduction of disc parking transformed what had previously been a chaotic situation.

In some years, including 2002, spirits were dampened by bad weather, but chamber of trade chairman John Laity told the D&S Times this week that the decision to reduce the scope of this year's event had also been influenced by objections from some traders about loss of parking spaces.

The development comes at a time when previously empty commercial properties which were causing concern in Bedale have all found new uses and the town is trying to promote itself through a tourist leaflet launched earlier this year.

Bedale also has a community investment prospectus steering group working to win money from the single regeneration budget and, alongside Northallerton, has just been chosen by the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward as a priority area in the first year of the ten-year Renaissance Market Towns programme.

Mr Laity said: "The weather for the fun day last year was lousy and could not have been worse, but there has been an ongoing issue for three or four years with some traders regarding the loss of parking spaces.

"Some traders would do very well out of the day but others not so well, and they are the ones who have been the most vocal about it.

"For some of them, it is probably an important time of the year in selling Christmas presents and, though they were not negative about the fun day, they were a bit unhappy about the loss of parking on that particular day.

"We tried to get everyone's views so that a way through could be found that suited all and a really informed decision could be made. We consulted not only chamber of trade members but also other shop owners as well as the town council, the fire brigade and the police.

"We still need to do something this year but it will certainly not be on the previous scale. There will be Santa in his grotto, the Christmas lights and singing around the tree but nothing will take up any space in the market place. There will be no funfair or display of vintage vehicles.

"The comments which came back were quite well-analysed. We are thinking of something in another year in the summer months, when the weather is likely to be better, but the argument about parking would still be the same."