THE popular annual Littleport Show could be permanently scrapped unless villagers come forward and offer help, committee members said this week.

The show is in “last chance saloon” according to joint organiser Derek Timbers, who told the Ely Standard that new volunteers are urgently needed to keep the show alive.

The 2011 event had to be cancelled because of a lack of volunteers and Mr Timbers fears the future of the event, which regularly attracts 10,000 people to the village, is a bleak one.

The show committee are holding an AGM from 7.30pm at the Littleport Leisure Centre on October 12 and Mr Timbers is calling on villagers to show their support or face losing the show.

He said: “This is what we are calling the last chance saloon, because if we don’t get a good turn out for our upcoming meeting it could be the end for the show.

“We have got a very small committee and it is becoming more and more difficult to put on the show because people have been left doing three jobs each which is just too much.”

Mr Timbers added that previous appeals for help had fallen on deaf ears, leaving the committee exasperated.

“Everybody wants more and more and expects big things from the show but there just aren’t enough people to do it, it has become a big problem,” he said.

The show, one of Cambridgeshire’s longest running community events, attracts thousands of people to the village to enjoy a range of events including craft stalls, horticultural and flower tents, trade stands and children’s rides, with thousands of pounds raised for charity in the process.