Below is a statement issued by local children’s charity CAFT, which was due to hold its annual Family Fun Day this weekend.
The event has had to be cancelled owing to the wet and windy weather which is forecast to hit the area over the weekend.
CAFT said:
“We’re so sorry to have to tell you that we’ve made the really difficult decision to cancel Sunday’s Family Fun Day here at the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust.
“This is such an important community event for our charity, so we haven’t taken the decision lightly as we understand there will be a lot of very disappointed children and their families who were looking forward to the event.
“Sadly after such a fantastic summer, the weather has changed and the forecasts for Sunday are awful.
“We’ve been keeping a very close eye on them – we’re all aware how quickly they can change – but with persistent warnings for high winds and rain we have serious concerns about the safety of our guests.
“The safety of visitors to the Adventure Farm is absolutely paramount and has to take priority. High winds will make it unsafe for us to erect marquees and gazebos and would make the use of bouncy castles and some fairground equipment impossible.
“Another pressing concern is rain, which is forecast in bucket-loads! This event is held on one of our fields here at CAFT, and we use a neighbouring field for parking.
“Sustained, heavy rain between now and the event will make the ground unsuitable for vehicles, meaning not only can we not get vehicles on site to deliver items for the event, but our guests won’t be able to park!
“We had given ourselves a decision deadline of Thursday afternoon, which will give us time to let guests know but also in the interests of saving the charity as much money as possible.
“With any event, there are costs involved, which if we left the decision until the weekend we would still incur. Cancelling now will save us wasting money unnecessarily, which we hope you agree is extremely important.
“We are so very sorry to everyone who was planning on joining us on Sunday. We hope you understand that your safety is our number one priority.
“If you need to speak to anyone about this event please just give us a call in our fundraising office on 01565 830 053.”
