AN appeal has gone out from Marlborough Carnival Committee for help in planning this year's activities.

Last year saw one of the biggest and best carnival processions for years, after a week of activities.

It was a glittering end to the carnival careers of a number of long-serving committee members including chairman Rob Dickens, his wife Angela who was secretary, and their children Kevin and Lorna who had been active committee members.

The Dickens family stood down to pursue other interests and also to make way for new members with fresh ideas.

The outgoing committee left a small working capital for the 2004 committee after sharing out £1,400 to charities.

A meeting has been called for next Tuesday at 7.30pm in the Jubilee Centre. The idea is to form a committee to run the 2004 carnival.

Acting chairman Mark Shire said it was imperative to get support from the town and from organisations and service groups.

Mr Shire hopes to see all the town's major clubs and service groups represented at the meeting.

He also hopes that some of the town's young people will come along and bring along ideas for new activities.

One thing the new committee will have to decide is the date of carnival.

Four or five years ago the carnival was moved from its traditional Whitsun week Saturday night slot to a Sunday in September.

The objective was to try to attract some of the floats from the Devizes carnival, held the previous week.

It was also designed to help the carnival attract floats from Pewsey carnival that took place the following Saturday.