ABUSE from irate drivers trying to park their cars to go to Marlborough Jazz Festival means Marlborough and District Rotary Club will not be helping with the stewarding the car park this year.

In the run-up to the event later this month they raised concerns over the potential traffic chaos at the car park on The Common, which last year saw members deal with a number of irate drivers who were caught up in the heavy flow of traffic.

Sally Wolfenden, the new president of Marlborough and District Rotary Club, said: “Last year we made peanuts because of having to redirect all of the traffic. Usually we hold buckets and collect donations for helping with the parking, but last year was just horrendous. People were getting very angry, I remember having to stand behind our president at the time in case he got knocked over.

“I pushed for stewards or traffic wardens and spoke to the police and the town council a lot and they were very helpful, but the Marlborough Jazz committee weren’t having it, it ended up with a resounding No.”

Since 2005 the Rotary Club has been helping with parking of more than 500 cars on The Common and collecting change, which would then be spent on gifts to local charities and organisations and setting up youth activities in Marlborough.

Geoff Oades, press officer for the Rotary club, said: “We are disappointed as we do the car parking to raise money for charity. We have done it for years, we could typically raise up to £600 for our charities just from that Saturday. It is a great shame that it will have to stop.”

Organiser of the Marlborough Jazz Festival, Nick Fogg, said that another charity has now been invited to help this year and that help from the police may not be a realistic option.

Mr Fogg said: “It was said they would help if they can get people to direct the traffic, well you can’t tell people what to do. The only people who can do that are the police and traffic wardens but you can’t expect the police to do it as there aren’t that many and they might get called away to an accident or something similar.

“We have another charity that is going to help which works with troubled children and introduces music into their lives as a way of helping them, it is a terrifically worthwhile cause.”