Two local charities have got together to help resurrect the Bushey Carnival this year but are in need of volunteers to help their plans succeed.

Watford Lions and The Lincolnsfield Children's Centre are keen to relaunch the popular event on July 4 this year, two years after it was controversially scrapped from the 25 year old Bushey Festival.

The carnival, which marked the start of the festival, was originally run by a local Round Table group but a lack of support and volunteers meant they could no longer organise it.

Brian Turner, of the Watford Lions, who helps organise charity events including Watford's Cassiobury Park fireworks display and the Abbots Langley carnival said he was “very optimistic” the event could make a comeback this year.

He said he had already been handed a list of 199 potential stallholders and said the only thing in his way was the lack of a Bushey based committee to run the event.

He said: “They reckon the festival has gone down hill ever since the carnival stopped. Everyone would get something out of it. We make £20 per stand which all goes to charities in Bushey and the stalls make about £1,000 each.

“I have already had a tremendous amount of support from people in Bushey and I believe we can do this. If it fails it will be the first failure I've had. I don't believe in failures. With some help from your friends you can do anything.”

He said he hoped a local carnival committee or Bushey Lions group would be formed but said the Watford Lions would run the event if local interest was not found.

At last month's meeting of the Bushey Forum, praise of last year's 25th Bushey Festival was countered with a lengthy discussion about the loss of the carnival.

One of the speakers at the meeting, Francis Mclennan, manager of the Lincolnsfield Children's Centre in Bushey criticised the Bushey Festival Committee for failing to bring back the carnival.

Today, Karen Williams, secretary of the Bushey Festival Committee said: “We are certainly very much behind it and want it to happen, it's just a case of having the manpower to have it happen. We will help out but we run over 40 events so the main work has got to be from him (Brian Turner at Watford Lions).”

Anyone who is interested in taking part or helping to run a 2009 Bushey Carnival is asked to telephone Brian Turner on 01923 248192 or email bodywise@hotmail.com