A BLACK cloud has been cast over this year's annual Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival after complaints were made about the banning of individual collection boxes.

The festival has been held throughout this week and in the past has raised thousands of pounds for the village.

The village is famous for its often larger than life scarecrows which are all made by villagers and sited outside homes and businesses.

Each year there is a different theme, and this year's is the International Year of Reading.

Sarah Wright, of Sunters Garth, Kettlewell, told the Herald the festival committee was against having private collection boxes outside homes for individual charities and causes.

She said she had had a collection box outside her home for visitors to donate to the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity since the festival began. It is now in its sixth year.

"The festival committee members held a meeting and said we could not have our own collection boxes any more because they said it was diluting money from the festival," she said.

But she disagreed with this and said the amount that Breakthrough had received from her collection box over the years was around £1,000 - only a fraction of the amount the festival has generated. Last year alone saw around £12,000 being shared between the school, church and village hall; the recipients of the money raised.

"Breast cancer is a subject which is close to many villagers' hearts. My own mother died from the disease and there are several women within the village who are currently suffering from it. This makes it all the more sad that I cannot continue with it," she said.

There are usually about six individual boxes in the village. These are for such bodies as the British Legion, the newly formed playground committee, and the Threshfield Brownies of which around four children in the village are members.

"I feel the festival committee is being very petty in thinking our boxes will make such a difference to the money they raise," she added.

This year Mrs Wright has not created a scarecrow in part protest at the decision although she still supports the event.

"I feel the festival is good for the village and my husband, Andrew, will continue to make his field available for additional car parking should the need arise," she added.

However, the festival committee feels the situation has been misunderstood and denies telling people they could not put up boxes.

"We would not have the power to do so even if we wanted to," said committee member, David Nelson. "The suggestion from the committee was to monitor the amount of boxes to see if there was a growth in them."

And fellow member Geoff Queen added: "The festival is for the benefit of the village and in particular the three causes it supports. What we don't want to see is organisations from outside cashing in on it without putting anything towards the high cost - around £2,000 - of setting it up."

Committee chairman Graham Chamberlain said the suggestion was a gross overstatement: "The last thing we want is for there to be any ill feeling in the village. A lot of time and effort goes into its setting up and all the money raised goes back into the village," he declared.

"We always have a meeting after the event for people to raise their views and to decide whether to hold another one the year after. The event is not fait accompli and depends of the effort of lots of people pulling together," said Mr Queen.

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