A Suffolk rotary club is closing after 13 years due to dwindling numbers after the club's membership fell from 30 at the start to just nine now.

Framlingham Rotary Club members have been a familiar sight helping to marshal car parks at events such as the Framlingham Sausage Festival, but numbers have declined to such an extent that the club can no longer function.

Richard Corbett, the club's social and charity secretary, said the members would instead be focusing their attentions on helping the local charity Hour Community, which was set up to support Framlingham and the surrounding villages.

In 2017, the Framlingham branch received rotary's Community Service Cup in recognition of its Hour Community project.

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Explaining the reasons behind the decision, he said people were unable to make the time commitment, while the cost of participating with rotary- £120 per head per year- was too much.

He added there were also 'international commitments' with rotary that were increasingly difficult to fulfil and time would be better spent focusing on the local charity.

"We think morphing into this other group will be an extremely good job for our community because we still have members on the charity's trustee board and we feel that we can do so much for Framlingham than our international commitments with rotary," Mr Corbett said.

READ MORE: Framlingham Rotary Club wins national recognition for Hour Community project

He cited other examples of rotary clubs closing down, including at Eye and said there were wider difficulties with attracting new members.

Time pressures due to work and making ends meet meant the younger generation could not commit to participating with organisations such as Rotary, Mr Corbett added.

READ MORE: Framlingham news

Among Framlingham rotary's achievements, he said the Lend with Care scheme had helped business start-ups in third world countries by lending money.

"The decision to close the club will possibly allow us to play an even bigger part in the community because we can contrate locally rather than on international things," he added.

READ MORE: Suffolk news