Organisers of north Essex’s only major free fireworks display have called time on the event.

The Peldon Sparklers’ Association, which has hosted a display on the village’s playing fields since the 1980s has announced a shortage of volunteers means the event has been scrapped.

Chairman John Walker said: “It will be horrible to say goodbye. I am gutted.

“The following we have had is incredible. People have been coming for years and years. I think they will be more gutted than I am.

“It is not a normal display. There is a lot of rhythm. It is not just putting on loads of bangs.

“It is a display that catches people’s imagination.”

See Thursday's Gazette for the full story.