The popular Topsham Town Fayre starts next weekend.

TOPSHAM’S popular, eagerly-awaited town fayre starts next weekend.

The week-long extravaganza starts on August 21 and ends the following Saturday, August 28, when the carnival procession will take place.

Veronica Coe, one of nine Topsham Town Fayre committee members, the group responsible for organising the annual occasion, believes the programme of events for 2010 is as good as ever before.

She said: “Once again there is the dog show, the crowing of the Topsham royal family, town fayre bingo and of course, the carnival. There’s something for everyone.”

Mrs Coe, however, said Kevin Hack, secretary of the committee, had faced a number of difficulties in preparing this year’s event which included new guidelines to be followed, associated with closing roads for the carnival.

“There has been a lot of work in preparation of the fayre,” she said.

“We have had a hefty bill, for instance, that has come for �1300 from the AA to close the roads and without that we can’t have a carnival. This is all to do with new signs that you’ve got to have.”

The bill will be paid out of the town fayre funds.

Speaking to the Journal last June, Mr Hack voiced his fears about new highways legislation, and how it could impact on necessary road closures.

Mr Hack also said a lack of people to help with the event’s organisation could result in the carnival being dropped in the near future.

But, Mrs Coe said there was renewed optimism as there had been several new people who have joined the committee in recent weeks.

“With a new committee and more help, hopefully we can start looking forward and plan for next year but saying that, we then had a setback in getting a bill for �1300,” she explained.

“If we have a bad year, it’s going to knock us back a lot of money, but we are looking a bit more optimistic.

“People continue to say you’ve got to keep going.

“Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, who is supporting our efforts, said you have to have a carnival and he would do everything he could to ensure it doesn’t stop.

“He said if it does ever finish, it would never get going again.”