THE Christmas fair and lights event in Winkleigh will go ahead this year, but the future of the 750-year-old Winkleigh Fair is still not assured.

At the fair annual meeting on September 10, the fair committee, which has run the event for the last six years and also ran the Christmas lights event, resigned, and only two people came forward to form a new committee.

An extraordinary general meeting was held on Monday, September 24 in an effort to attract more volunteers to form a new committee and organise a fair for 2013.

A minimum of five volunteers were needed to step forward and form a new committee. However, with fewer than five people coming forward, that left the fair and Christmas lights event without a team to organise them.

Five days later the village hall hosted a public open day for residents to consult on the Winkleigh Parish Plan.

The Rev Graham Warmington, Torridge District Councillor for Winkleigh Ward David Lausen and chair of Winkleigh Parish Council Marjorie Bowers resolved to ensure that the Christmas lights event and the Christmas fair would take place this year. They set up a fair strategy committee between them in an effort to save the events.

Mr Warmington said: 'At the open day we put our heads together to try and save the Christmas event, and think of ways to put on Winkleigh Fair next year. It would be a great shame to let them slide into oblivion.'

This year's Christmas fair will take place in the village hall and Methodist Chapel on Sunday, December 9 from 2pm to 6pm.

The chapel will be full of activities for youngsters, including face painting and visiting Father Christmas, giving parents and carers the chance to look around the stalls in the village hall. The Christmas lights will be turned on in the village square that evening.

However, a new committee to organise Winkleigh Fair has yet to be formed.

Mr Warmington said: 'We are taking things one step at a time. The short term aim was to get the Christmas fair and lights event going again, and hopefully folks will come forward to help form a new fair committee for Winkleigh Fair.

'The fair committee did such a brilliant job, and took Winkleigh Fair into new dimensions,

'They will be a very hard act to follow. But we think if we take things back to square one and can get a committee set up, we can put on a fair next year. No-one wants to see it disappear.'