Hopes for carnival in fees wrangle

A north Shropshire carnival which was cancelled in a row over clean-up fees has been saved, it was revealed today.

But organisers of Ellesmere Carnival urged the community to come forward to pledge their support to ensure the future of the event.

Members of the carnival committee cancelled this year's event after claiming they were going to be charged £500 by Shropshire Council to clean up Cremorne Gardens after the event.

But council chiefs said while they were in discussions to introduce fees, they were not introducing charges this year and had not requested any money from the carnival committee.

A crunch meeting was held last night at Ellesmere's Comrades Club to decide its future.

Today Alan Hinton, spokesman for the committee, said: "People came forward with some good ideas and more importantly some very good people are promising to join the committee to make this year's event happen.

"I now feel positive that this year's carnival can be saved but would like to urge people to still come forward as it still very much hangs in the balance and will depend on the numbers who attend the first committee meeting.

"With everything in mind we will have our first monthly committee meeting at 8pm on Wednesday at the Comrades Club."