A LOCAL charity is counting the cost after being forced to cancel a major event because of gale force winds on Sunday.
The winds devasted marquees and gazebos erected for an open day and family fun run at the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust at Millington, near Lymm.
Helen Crowther, spokeswoman for the charity said: “It was such a tough decision, but one which had to be made – we’ve never cancelled an event before.
“We arrived on Sunday morning at 7am to set up for this huge event, to find the freak weather conditions had not only brought down our marquees and gazebos but also several branches from our trees. One of the marquees collapsed on top of one of our fundraisers – but thankfully she was fine.
“After assessing the damage and consulting the weather reports, it became obvious that it would not have been safe to go ahead with the event. Our main concern is always for the safety of our visitors, and we weren’t going to take any chances with so much debris flying about.”
Helen said cancelling the event had cost the charity about £2,000 – not including the loss of income which last year for the same event brought in £8,000.
She added: “Not a charity to be beaten, we have re-scheduled the event for August 31 and we need as much help as we can to recoup these costs. More so than ever we will be asking local companies and individuals to become event sponsors.”
Picture shows a down-in-the-dumps Rocky Robin from Altrincham FC and Bobby (the charity’s own mascot) who had been looking forward to racing against some big names in the mascot world – Fred the Red (Manchester United) and Moonchester (Manchester City).
