New people at the helm of Hinckley Carnival
NEW organisers have stepped forward to take over the running of the town carnival after the former committee stepped down.
Concerns were raised for the future of the event after the previous organising committee stood down.
However, George Denny and Darran Brown have stepped in to oversee the festivities.
Mr Denny relaunched The Bounty pub in Market Place in 2013.
He said in a post on Facebook: “We are pleased to announce confirmation that we Darran Brown and George Denny in collaboration with Hinckley Regen- eration and The Bounty have agreed to formally take over the organisation and running of Hinckley Carnival for 2018”.
He also said on the post that he was taking on the carnival “to secure it as a community legacy and asset to help promote and advertise the viability as well as sustainability which Hinckley was renowned for.
“Our commitment to help all the town centre businesses benefit from a carnival run by the businesses of the town is what it is all about with transparency at its core.
“We invite you all to get involved and look forward to sharing its progress in bringing the Good Old Days Back to Hinckley.”
He said: “I know how hard it’s been for the previous organisers, so I couldn’t help but stand in and offer to assist.
“The key is transparency; everyone needs to be involved. That’s why it’s important to have updates on Facebook, so there’s no misunderstanding and people can see what is going on.”
The previous organisers decided to step down after what they said were problems last year with high traffic management fees and recruiting enough people to run the event.
Vicky Martin, one of the organisers of the 2017 carnival, said: “It’s a shame but with the added costs and lack of support it was such a struggle.
“We had to raise over £3,000 before the event could even go ahead. Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council did help us with a donation of £1,500 but this didn’t cover the full cost of the traffic management.
“We were made to pay £1,700 for traffic management, which other carnivals don’t have to.”
The organisers also struggled to get enough marshalls for the day, and Ms Martin was diagnosed with Lymphoma last year, and found it difficult to get everything in place while receiving her treatments.