Community carnival saved by volunteers (From The Northern Echo)

Community carnival saved by volunteers

4:36pm Monday 8th February 2010 in

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A TRADITIONAL carnival that was facing cancellation because of a lack of organisers has been saved after volunteers came forward to help run it.

The organising committee of Brompton Carnival and Sports has announced that the annual event will go ahead as planned in May and should be secure for future years.

The event had been at risk after an earlier appeal for extra volunteers failed, despite it being well attended and supported by the local community every year.

At the annual general meeting of the carnival organising committee, three volunteers came forward and offered to join the committee, bringing the number of organisers to ten.

Several other people who attended the meeting also expressed an interest in joining although they did not officially commit themselves.

Secretary Anne Cornforth said: "It looks as though the carnival is secure and we will be able to carry on. We were looking for people to come forward and learn the ropes of the event so they could perhaps take it over in future years and we had quite a good response at the meeting.

"We have not had any new committee members for a number of years and to be honest we were not expecting any response at all after previous attempts failed.

"We have three definite names put forward to join the committee and hopefully a few more might join before the carnival itself."

Committee members will meet for several short meetings before the event takes place on May Bank Holiday Sunday, which this year falls on May 31.

One problem that remains for organisers is finding a way to pay for road closures during the carnival weekend, which can run into hundreds of pounds, despite support from the parish council.

Mrs Cornforth said: "It’s such a lot of money to raise before we’ve even started planning the carnival itself.

"We are hoping for some help from the county council but otherwise we have to find a way to come up with the money ourselves so that the event can go ahead, after all the hard work to find volunteers."

If you are interested in becoming a committee member, call 01609-775263