Carnival is a record breaker

OVERWHELMED Nuneaton carnival organisers have thanked the community for making this year’s event a record breaker.

From the crowds lining the streets to the 19 strong float procession, the Nuneaton Carnival committee praised the effort of every single person.

“It was just the perfect day,” said said carnival chairman Martin Hobbins.

“It could not have gone better, it was incredible, it was a record breaker, certainly in all my time as chair.

“We stopped counting the money at 2.30am and by then we had already counted more than we had last year, it is phenomenal.”

Nuneaton born and bred himself, the chairman said:“The crowds were incredible, we couldn’t do this without the community, they were so great. The donations were unbelievable, we had fivers, ten pounds and even £20 notes put in the buckets.”

At the time of publication, the final figure was not officially known but he suspects it easily tops the £5,000 mark.

Mr Hobbins was keen to pay tribute to the just seven strong committee for all of their efforts in pulling off the ‘perfect day’ as well as all of the volunteers.

A special thanks was also made to the GAMS band who travelled all the way from Italy to take part in the procession in memory of former member, Emily Cotton.

She was born in Arley but moved to Italy and was the heartbeat of the band before she tragically lost her life last year. The band raised £6,000 to ensure that they could pay the ultimate tribute to her by taking part in her hometown carnival.

Their performances left the crowds stunned: “They were just incredible, in fact I would go as far as to say that they were the best thing that have ever been in the carnival, I would love to get them back next year,” he added.

He was also keen to thank the lorry firms for answering a plea for help in the Telegraph: “My phone was ringing red hot last week, we had lorries come from as far as Birmingham to come and help, again it was amazing,” he said.

Mr Hobbins said that the last minute, emergency change in route also seemed to work in their favour: “There were so many people on Newdegate Street, we could not believe it.”

Drama almost hit the town’s 88th annual event due to a last minute disruption to part of the route that runs through Nuneaton town centre.

With around 20 minutes to go before the 19 floatstrong procession was due to leave Avenue Road on Sunday lunchtime it emerged that part of Abbey Street was blocked due to roadworks.

Barriers had been placed around two holes in the road, close to the Blue Bear pub, as Severn Trent had carried out works – but this news had not been told to Nuneaton Carnival organisers.

A quick decision was made to change the route, obtaining an emergency road closure order to allow the procession to go along Harefield Road, past the bus station, around the island near to Asda, past Nuneaton Fire Station and then onto Roanne Ringway as usual.

The Telegraph contacted Severn Trent about the potential chaos that could have been caused and a spokesperson said: “We’d like to apologise for any problems caused by our work with the carnival and its route.”