NO large-scale Golden Jubilee celebrations will take place in Bordon after the sports council and Wey Valley Football Club were forced to call off their joint day long-celebrations because of lack of funding and public interest.

The Bordon, Whitehill and District Sports Council announced on Tuesday that it has had to ditch its plans for June 1 but is hoping to organise smaller scale celebrations for June 2 after EnglandÕs first world cup match.

The groups, along with Mill Chase Leisure Centre, were hoping to organise day-long sports taster sessions and were hoping to attract large numbers of families and sports clubs.

This would then have been followed by an evening event in a marquee with food, a bar and a live band.

Sports council chairman John Smith told the meeting that one of the key problems was the fact that LottoÕs Awards for All Scheme only gave the event around a quarter of the funding for which it had applied.

ÒThe funding that we received for this event was £1,372 but we we had bid for £4,500,Ó he said.

He explained that the sum of money was needed to pay for the hire of the marquee and said that the groups would be unable to raise the remainder of the money needed to pay for it themselves.

ÒWe were also unable to get most of the sports clubs to commit to contributing to the event,Ó Mr Smith continued.

He said that with both the lack of funding and the lack of interest from sports clubs the ÒunfortunateÓ decision to cancel the event had to be taken.

But the sports council is still hopeful that it can arrange a smaller-scale event at BOSC to take place after the screening of EnglandÕs first world cup match against Sweden on June 2.

This could include fun games of football, hockey skills, archery and petanque.

Mr Smith said: ÒThe idea of the main event was to encourage participation and get people interested in sport but hopefully we can arrange something for some of the sports clubs.Ó

The announcement has come only weeks after the Forest Community Centre confirmed that it was having to shelve its jubilee plans for almost identical reasons.

The Forest Community Centre had planned to hold a public street party, a barbecue and have a large number of stalls on June 3 but dropped its plans in the absence of enough volunteers to help initiate and organise the dayÕs events.

A Lotto grant from the Awards For All Scheme was also not forthcoming.

This now means that no large-scale public celebrations are organised within the town.

This compares to neighbouring towns Alton, Petersfield, Haslemere and Farnham which all have large scale celebrations planned thanks to jubilee committees which were set up earlier in the year comprising town councillors and local groups.

However, the villages surrounding Bordon and Whitehill are leading the way with a weekend of events planned for their residents.

Liphook and Bramshott have two days of celebrations planned which include a childrenÕs party and tea dance.

Greatham, Kingsley and Headley are holding fun days which include stalls, parades, live bands and barbecues.