A CARNIVAL committee has enlisted the help of its town council and is seeking charity status to ensure the event's future is safe.Members of Beccles Carnival committee are forming a trust and applying for charity status in order to raise more funds and organise more support.

A CARNIVAL committee has enlisted the help of its town council and is seeking charity status to ensure the event's future is safe.

Members of Beccles Carnival committee are forming a trust and applying for charity status in order to raise more funds and organise more support.

Rising insurance costs had put the carnival in jeopardy until the town council, headed by Mayor Mark Bee stepped in and offered a reduced arrangement.

The committee also agreed at a meeting last week are also getting rid of their old and restrictive constitution – which restricted who could vote and placed unrealistic deadlines who could join the committee – and are replacing it with a new one so that decisions and progress can be made quicker.

The carnival's future was also threatened when many members of the carnival committee, including chairman Ivan Holmes, said they were not prepared to continue for another year.

Mr Holmes said last night he was now staying on as chairman now that new arrangements regarding the constitution had been made, but he said he hoped someone would step in to take over and appealed for volunteers to help out with future carnival.

He said: "I am optimistic about the future now. The meeting was very good and we got a lot out of it.

"I am ok to carry on but I think the carnival does need someone living in Beccles to run it and I don't live in the town.

"I've been doing it for seven years and it is time for someone else to take over, which I am hoping will happen at the next meeting."

An extraordinary meeting of the committee will be held on January 8 at 7.30pm in Beccles Town Hall, where members will hear if the charity bid has been successful and decide how best to move forward.