A HIGHLY anticipated yearly Christmas event which brings a village together will not be taking place this year.

The Tiptree Christmas Fayre has been run by Tiptree residents Sandra Redgewell, Tina Barrand, Jen Butler, Heidi Pettet and Jackie Dinsdale.

At last year's event, about 9000 people were in attendance, with more than 100 stalls from small businesses on Church Road and in the community centre and St Luke's Hall.

The event helps to raise a significant amount of money for charities every year.

However, this year organisers have made the decision not to host the event.

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Festive: Santa on his sleigh at the event in 2022Festive: Santa on his sleigh at the event in 2022 (Image: Paul Ost Photography)

The event costs about £12,500 to put on due to insurance costs and it takes about six months to organise.

Organiser and Tiptree Parish councillor Sandra Redgewell said: “We are not affiliated to a body, organisation or charity.

“Therefore it is a tremendous amount of work for us, plus any liability that our insurance wouldn’t cover if anything happened would have been down to us personally to compensate.

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Organisers: members of the committee at the 2022 eventOrganisers: members of the committee at the 2022 event (Image: Dan Pettet)

“For reasons that I don’t wish to go into, last year we had an incident where there was a real possibility where we could have been exposed to liability for something unforeseen.

“This isn’t, however, the main reason that we’re not doing the fayre.

"The main reason is that it has got too big for the five of us to handle, with most of the work falling on my shoulders as the other ladies either had businesses or families to run.”

Sandra has stepped down from organising the event, but says it could return in the future.

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Busy: youngsters meeting their favourite Paw Patrol characters at the 2022 eventBusy: youngsters meeting their favourite Paw Patrol characters at the 2022 event (Image: Paul Ost Photography)

She said: “It’s a shame but we also didn't get the volunteers and offers of assistance in 2022 that we had previously, and, as I’ve said, it’s just too much work for us to deal with.

“It was just too stressful, not to mention all the money we had to raise to finance it. That in itself was a considerable amount of time and effort.

“We have closed down our Facebook page, and if there are any plans in the future to reinstate the fayre with a different group of people, they will make it known on social media as soon as they are ready.”