A TREASURED Didcot tradition will not be making an appearance in the town's events calendar this year after organisers struggled to raise the cash to run the event.

For the last fifteen years Didcot Rotary Club has lit up the November sky with a spectacular fireworks display.

But the club has decided its 2015 charity event at the Lloyd Recreation Ground in Brasenose Road was its last and a company which had hoped to step in has been unable to meet the costs.

Shelagh Garvey, Chairwoman of Didcot Rotary Club, said: "We self funded this event completely by ourselves year after year.

"The reason why we stopped was because we were always worried about safety issues because of sparks flying off the bonfire.

"Insurance was also going up and we are all getting older so it was a combination of those factors we made the decision, with reluctance.

"We were hoping that someone would pick it up."

In a bid to save the display, which sees thousands of residents flock to the area, the committee of the annual Street Fair decided to take on the challenge.

But even with a £500 offer from the rotary club and £1,000 from Bloor Homes, there were still thousands needed for the display, which were not raised in time for the show to go on.

Jeanette Howse, Chairwoman of Didcot Events, said it was a 'real shame.'

She added: "We wanted to take the event on but we just could not raise enough sponsorship from scratch which would allow us to put on the event and to continue running it year after year.

"We unfortunately had nothing to fall back on.

"This is a community event that should be for the community but it also has to be paid for."

An application for a grant of £9,000 from Didcot Town Council was submitted in September but was not granted as the application was filed in the name of an individual and not Didcot Events, which is against the council rules.

Bill Service, leader of the council, said: "It was great that we had someone stepping in to take it on because the town council has never been involved with it.

"We have only got so much we can give away and we have policies in place.

"But what we did say is that we would defer the application until the next meeting, to allow time to get everything sorted because as a town council we would like to support it."

However, a new committee at Didcot Events is being formed, to bring a 'spectacular pyro-musical display' to Didcot in 2017.

For the first time this year, the company will be running a three-day food festival at the Cornerstone Arts Centre from Friday, November 25 to Sunday, November 27.

For more information visit: didcotevents.co.uk