What a fantastic start to our Junction 7 Jubilee celebrations, with activities and food that we provided for our youth group, we supported a jubilee party to remember in the West Ward.
We also undertook a Food Festival and Craft Fair in our Town Centre, for Junction 7 we felt this was a great event and increased footfall in our town centre, it raised our profile as a town and helped support local businesses. Many of our local shops had an increase in turnover and welcomed the event. This was the first event of this kind for Junction 7, as part of our ethos to raise awareness, create jobs and raise the profile of our town centre we took this project on, not wanting to raise money, but to benefit the people of Newton Aycliffe.
Our guest chef, Sean Wilson, (Martin Platt, Coronation Street), due to miscommunication was unable to deliver his planned sessions, so we were able to put a surplus food demonstration on instead.
On the Sunday, Sean visited the West Ward where Junction 7 are based, meeting, chatting and talking about food with our local residents.
Most of you are now are aware that we had to cancel the last day of our Food Festival and Craft Fair due to unforeseen circumstances. Unfortunately the majority of our booked food vendors decided to take it upon themselves not to return for the Sunday. They felt because our Town Centre is closed there would not be enough footfall to trade on the Sunday.
A difficult decision was made to cancel, unfortunately this has caused Junction 7 to be out of pocket. Also we found on the morning of the portaloo collection, the disabled toilet had been set on fire and Junction 7 are liable for the excess on our insurance for the event of £800.00.
We would like to thank the following people for the hard work and support that went into this: Great Aycliffe Town Council, Paul Howell for opening the Festival, Paul Howarth and Aycliffe Radio, Shine Choir and Sing It Choir, Simon Hocking for all the legal and safety paperwork, Carol Payne and a huge thanks to all of our volunteers that worked tirelessly behind the scenes.
A big thank you to everyone that came along and supported the event in the town centre.