Organisers of a summer fete have warned of serious implications for the village if more volunteers do not come forward.
Dwindling support for the annual event in Hadnall has led fete bosses to launch an appeal to ensure this is not its final year.
They fear that if the event does not continue the village hall, which provides space for a range of community functions, will lose crucial revenue and may have to close.
An announcement was made by the committee in the village newsletter stating there is a limit on how much the current hall committee can do and a new fete co-ordinator is desperately needed.
Money raised from events including the fete and an annual Valentine evening help cover the costs of maintaining the hall.
The newsletter read: “Sad to think of Hadnall without its summer fete, isn’t it? Not only is it a good community event but the money raised is vital to the upkeep of our village hall and its fate is hanging in the balance.”
Vice chairman of the village hall committee, Roy Tonge, said: “Like most rural communities we have a dying breed of rural volunteers. We’ve had 50 to 60 homes come in but only about five per cent of those people will get involved with the community.
“The same person who ran it last year wasn’t prepared to take it on again and although she has agreed to run it for the last time this year we thought it was best to put out a call for help.”
Volunteers were asked to attend a meeting on April 2 but nobody came forward.
Mr Tonge said it was not just the fete which was affected by falling volunteer numbers and that the parish council had been struggling to fill a vacancy since February.
“The fete will be going ahead under the same guidance but I do feel if more people leave the committee we’ll have to call it a day,” he said.
“We haven’t the people prepared to give the time. We have a lot of helpers but no one to oversee it. The fete has been going for at least ten years but probably more. We always make a good profit for the hall,” he added.
