A POPPY appeal which looked set to fold in an Essex village due to a lack of volunteers has been saved – thanks to the EADT.A call for volunteers to organise the poppy appeal in Tiptree fell on deaf ears and last month it looked as if there would be no appeal in the village this year, as well as no traditional Remembrance Day service since there is currently no parish priest.

A POPPY appeal which looked set to fold in an Essex village due to a lack of volunteers has been saved – thanks to the EADT.

A call for volunteers to organise the poppy appeal in Tiptree fell on deaf ears and last month it looked as if there would be no appeal in the village this year, as well as no traditional Remembrance Day service since there is currently no parish priest.

Pensioner Don Wyley, of nearby village Tolleshunt Knights, has organised the appeal for the last three years but felt he could no longer manage it after his wife died a few months ago, so he informed the Royal British Legion and Tiptree Parish Council.

Last month the EADT reported that no replacement had been found and so neither the appeal and nor the remembrance service would take place.

A former Tiptree villager read the report and wrote to the parish council urging members to organise the appeal and service themselves.

Now Tony Webb and Joyce Bunney have agreed to take it on.

Mr Webb, who has been a parish councillor since 1970 and is a former mayor of Colchester, said: "We had a letter from a former resident who lives in Ongar.

"She read about the situation in the EADT and she was so concerned about it she wrote a letter saying when you're elected to the council you have got civic responsibilities and no matter how onerous, you must accept them.

"She's quite right of course. I said I'd take on half the job."

Mr Webb is organising the Remembrance Day service, parade and wreath laying, while Mrs Bunney is responsible for the Poppy appeal, which last year raised £3,500.

Mr Webb, who is governor of two of the village's schools, and chairman of Colchester Rural Age Concern, Age Concern Colchester and Tiptree Residents' Association, said he did not volunteer for the job immediately because he felt he was busy enough already.

"There are 9,100 other people in the village, I would have thought one of them would take it on."

But Mr Webb has said if it all goes well this year he will organise it again next year.

Long-standing parish councillor Tony Webb said: "

The pensioner who has organised the Poppy appeal in Tiptree for the past three years