THE Witham community came together to celebrate the town’s 90th carnival.

This year’s event saw the longest ever procession through the town, with 47 different groups taking part.

New to this year’s carnival was a four metre tall puppet which had been designed and built by members of the public and pupils from Maltings Academy.

There was a variety of entertainment on offer throughout the day, including games, acrobatics and stalls set up in the park. Organiser Suzanne Goody said: “We wanted to revamp

the carnival and get more of the Witham community involved and we succeed.

“There was a constant buzz around the town, more so than other years.

“We are hoping to build on this success and new participants have already started to contact us to say they are

excited about taking part next year.”

Organisers have also revealed plans to restage elements of the carnival in care homes across the town to allow those unable to attend to Saturday the chance to take part.

Ms Goody said: “We believe carnival is about community, its is by the community for the community.

“We are aware that not all members of the community can attend carnival even if they wanted to.

“Therefore we are going to attempt to take carnival to them.”

Kinetika, which designed the community puppet, added: "We are delighted to have worked with the Witham Carnival Committee and puppeteers Smoking Apples to help make the designs a reality and create this wonderful community puppet.

"Students from Maltings Academy, Witham Hangout and residents from local care homes have all played an important role in bringing the puppet to life and we hope this is just the start of a long term relationship with the Witham Carnival Committee."