New summer event for Cold Ash?

The fete has been cancelled due to a lack of volunteers and ideas for a smaller summer event are being discussed

COLD Ash fete will not go ahead this year because of a lack of volunteers.

Instead, it has been suggested that an alternative, smaller village party could be held so that people still had a summer event to go to.

At a meeting last Wednesday of the Cold Ash Community Partnership, it was decided that this could be achieved if some local organisations help stage the event.

Ideas put forward included a summer picnic and a clubs and societies showcase.

It was also hoped that it would be a practice run for an event to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee next year.

The partnership decided that it would take on the organisation, but chairman Richard Avens said that while no decision on the kind of event had been finalised, it could not be a fete.

He said: “It's a shame, but if the villagers don't want it, they don't want it.

“We are going to have an exploratory meeting of the interested parties to see the way forward.

“We had a meeting to look at it and we got some interested people who want to see a way forward, but nothing has been finalised.”

He added that it would only go ahead if the villagers were happy for it to happen and showed their support.

In November, it was announced that the fete committee was considering axing the annual fete because some committee members had stood down and no volunteers had come forward to replace them.

Last year, Cold Ash village fete, held in August, raised £6,000.

A donation of £3,000 was made to the Newbury and District Cancer Care Trust, and the life-threatening illness support charity, the Friends of Charles Clore Unit, and the youth counselling service, 14-21 Time to Talk, both got £1,500. Additionally, local organisations and charities raised more than £2,000 on their stalls at the fete.

The next Cold Ash Community Partnership committee meeting will take place on February 9.