THE organisers of Coleford Carnival of Transport heaved a sigh of relief on Monday when the weekend-long threat of driving brain and gale force winds failed to materialise.

Early morning rain gave way to a bright but chilly start to the carnival and by mid morning the ice cream sellers were doing a brisk business.

Committee chairman Dr Gareph Bloxley said it turned out to be ‘a very very good day’.

“When the marshals arrived at 6am it was cold and raining and it didn’t look good,” he said.

“But by 7.30am it stopped raining and soon after the sun came out and it just got progressively better throughout the day.

“The crowd was definitely down on last year when we had brilliant weather and record attendance, but the numbers increased as the weather improved during the day.

“It’s always a good sign when you see people queueing for the ice cream van and the feed back from the marshals was very good.

“As usual there was a fantastic display of cars on show. At a rough count I reckon there was probably more than a million pounds worth of cars on display.

“It is amazing to think that some of these cars are worth up to £200,000 and yet their owners bring them out and drive here in the rain and pay us an entry fee for the privilege.

“Now the organising committee will have short rest before we start planning for next year’s carnival.”

Full report and pictures from the Carnival of Transport see this week’s edition of The Forester.