Organisers of the popular Ellesmere Carnival have been thrown a lifeline which could save this year’s event.
Ellesmere Rangers Football Club has offered to rescue the carnival by stumping up £500, which organisers need to settle a post-event clean-up bill they claim Shropshire Council wants to charge them.
Dave Coles, club chairman, said: “I was made aware that the carnival was being cancelled due to the £500 being levied on them for the use of Cremorne Gardens.
“As it brings in an awful lot of revenue to the town I made a number of phone calls to colleagues at the club and other people and got together the £500 on behalf of the club and made the offer to the committee. I said we were prepared to pay this £500 as part of a sponsorship.”
Alan Hinton, from the carnival committee, welcomed the offer but said it would need to be voted on when the committee next meets. He said it might be too late to rescue the carnival, even with an offer of financial support on the table.
He said: “This offer came about after telling everyone that the carnival has been postponed until next year.
“Bands and dance troupes may have now already booked to go elsewhere after this news so it will be very difficult to do any kind of U-turn now.”
Mr Hinton added that the committee felt so strongly about being charged to use Cremorne Gardens, which were given to the town by Lord Brownlow, that they would probably reject it and turn their attention to next year’s event, possibly at a new venue.
“I would vote not to accept this money and I’m sure other committee members feel the same too,” he added. “The football club work hard raising this money and it seems wrong to hand it over to the council for an unjust charge.
“We will probably need to look at other possible venues for next year if this charge still comes into force.”
Shropshire Council has said it has been in discussions with carnival organisers about introducing fees to cover the maintenance costs incurred when events are held in Cremorne Gardens.
But the council said no fee has been decided on and that discussions are at an early stage.
Lincoln McMullan, chairman of Ellesmere Chamber of Commerce, said: “The carnival being cancelled will be a big loss to the town, but hopefully people can sit down together and put the event back on.
“If not then at least it is scheduled to return next year and we have other events going on such as the Food and Drink Festival and the Winter Festival.”
By James Pugh