Ashburton residents have been challenged 'to get off their backsides' to help with some of the preparation associated with their traditional annual celebrations. No new treasurer could be found at last week's carnival annual meeting so town Cllr Michael Posner reluctantly agreed to continue in the role until a replacement could be found. Ian and Clare Ritson took over as chairman and secretary but although 17 people attended the meeting only one could be coaxed into joining the committee. Retiring secretary Sharyn Phillips said: 'If it was announced that there would be no carnival queen or no ram roast or no winter carnival or no children's evening or no fete, the whole town would be up in arms and meetings would be called because everyone would want to know why. 'The reason why is because Ashburton residents between 18 years and 40 years should be getting off their backsides and spend a bit of their time keeping this tradition going.' Last year's events raised £1,500, of which half was donated to 13 different local organisations and charities. Mrs Phillips said the burden was borne by too few people. After working at it almost full-time for 18 months, she said she wanted to take a back seat for a while. She urged volunteers to go to the meetings to see how they could get involved. 'You may find you're pretty good at something and could make a difference without much work at all. The old stalwarts are getting tired and Ashburton Carnival needs new blood injected to it.' The next meeting is on Tuesday, March 6, at 7.30pm in the town hall.
