PURTON Carnival has had a disappointing start resulting in financial losses after the first two events were poorly attended.

Organisers are at a loss to understand why only a dozen people turned up for the Masquerade Ball on Saturday night even though it had been widely publicised in the Even-ing Advertiser.

As a result, the carnival fund is already running at a £150 loss.

They are worried they might not be catering to the tastes of people in the village and are appealing for villagers to come forward with ideas for what they would like to see at their carnival.

Lynda Warren, 50, of Station Road, Purton ,is chairwoman of the carnival committee.

She says that ultimately it's the carnival's nominated charity Purton Helping Hand which will lose out because of the lack of support.

She said: "The first event was a mile of coins which went quite well despite the mix of weather.

"Other events in the village have not been well supported either, when we have spoken to the organisers of other functions they have said they have had to cancel things or had low attendance.

"I don't know why this has started to happen but it shows it is not just the carnival. I wonder if it's that a lot of people go to work outside the village and they don't want to be entertained within the village.

"Perhaps we are hopelessly out of date and we're not putting on what people want, in which case we want to know what people want.

"It's too late to change organised events this year, but it's not too late to put on other events and if anyone comes up with any ideas we could restructure the carnival for next year.

"Perhaps people don't want the type of events we are organising we are supported by a small nucleus of people who know what we are about.

"But most families should have heard of us as we help a range of people in the community like taking baskets of fruit or flowers to people in hospital, visiting the elderly and we give to a lot of gifts to children.

"We can't just stop doing the carnival. We have to raise a around £3,000 for local charities."

A cheese and wine evening is being held tonight in the village hall at 7.30pm, tickets £3.50, when an auction will be held.

Next Friday a carnival coffee morning will be held in the Silver Threads Hall from 10am and on Saturday, June 14, a tea dance at the village hall starts at 2pm for traditional ballroom and sequence dancing.