BEWDLEY Carnival will be cancelled this summer unless more volunteers can be found, organisers have warned.

The June celebration will be pulled - one year short of its 40th anniversary - if essential numbers do not come forward to manage the massively popular event.

The carnival may never then be able to get back on its feet, district residents have been told.

Bewdley Carnival committee secretary, Angie Pitt, said residents had one last chance to save the carnival at next month's committee meeting or the event would be cancelled.

She explained: "We have got major problems at the moment. The people we have got are doing two or three jobs and can't be in two places at once."

The move could signal the death knell for the carnival, which attracts thousands of people to the town and the carnival field at Bewdley Leisure Centre on Stourport Road every year, she said.

"It won't start up again," Mrs Pitt added, "If we don't have one this year then, deep down in my heart, I don't think it will start up again."

She feared existing committee members could be lost for good while doubting new ones could restart the event if it did not take place this year.

The committee needed to at least double its membership of seven to survive, said Mrs Pitt, of Shaw Hedge Road, Wribbenhall.

Essential jobs, such as organising the float parade, which kicks off the carnival - held on a Saturday - and the stalls at the leisure centre needed more bodies, she said.

Charities which have benefited from the thousands of pounds raised at the event would also miss out, Mrs Pitt warned.

"I would be very sad to see it go," she added, "A lot of people come to Bewdley for the carnival. It is one of the big dos.

"If it is cancelled then we are losing another thing for Bewdley. It is something people look forward to. It is one of the things that everybody can participate in."

The committee warned in the Shuttle/Times and News during the run-up to last summer's carnival that 2005 could be cancelled unless more volunteers offered their help.

The committee next meets on February 9. For more information, contact Mrs Pitt on 01299 402723.