THE future of Pewsey Carnival is looking a little brighter after the chairman announced ahead of their annual general meeting that they are in a better position financially than last year.

To try and give the carnival's committee extra time to prepare for the hugely popular festival, the AGM has been brought forward from April to discuss their finances, events that will go ahead and what roles need to be filled for the carnival.

Last year, the committee had to spend a lot of money cleaning up after the 2015 event which meant that there was no cash left for charity donations for 2016 - something Mr Wood hopes will not repeat itself this year.

"We are definitely in better shape than last year and the carnival will definitely go ahead, that is for sure," he said.

"We have had some very generous donations from the Pewsey Vale Running Club and the parish council have been very kind in giving us some money for the sole purpose of street cleaning during and after the carnival.

"The carnival is very expensive to put on. The funds will literally make you cry and we try to make a profit and donate to local causes. If people can sponsor us and donate that would be most appreciated.

"But the situation is not as dire as last year but we still have an awful lot of overheads, despite the fact that we have managed to reduce some of the costs. It is too early to say what will happen until after the meeting with the finances.

"We used to get funding from Wiltshire Council for street cleaning and road signs but that is no longer the case so we have to make do with what we have."

At the meeting, all the directors on the committee will have to resign, as part of their constitution, and then seek to be re-elected for this year's event.

"Hopefully we will have a full house on the committee and hopefully there will be some younger blood too as we would like all ages to participate in this special event," he said.

"I called it forward from April just to give us a bit more time. We need marshals, events planners, people on the finance team, someone to usher the Royal Family around to events, there are a lot of varied roles to be filled."

The carnival's committee meeting will take place in the Foresters Hall at the Royal Oak tonight (February 23) at 7.30pm and is open to the public.

For more information call 01672 563537 or visit http://www.pewsey-carnival.org.uk/