EVEN the parking went smoothly at the annual Speech House Fireworks and Fern Bonfire , say organisers.

The Saturday, November 3, event was the 30th firework display organised by the Severn Dean Lions and Forest of Dean Lions clubs and saw fine weather for most of the evening, a good turnout and £6,000 worth of fireworks released, raising £11,000 in profits for good causes.

Alan Townley, of Forest of Dean Lions, told the Review: “The event went absolutely brilliantly and everything went according to plan. By using a professional company, rather than just getting training ourselves, we can use much more powerful fireworks, and we’re lucky that the wind always seems to blow towards the fireworks, which makes it easier to manage from a safety viewpoint.

“Nearly 100 volunteers were involved in running the event on the night.

“There are eight of us on the organising committee and nearly 30 Lions between the two groups, but we had over 60 other volunteers who helped out.

“Some are friends and family, others are from local groups and others come from organisations we’ve funded.

“There are far too many to name, but we’re grateful to them all. The event wouldn’t happen without them.

“Thanks also to Peter and Gill Hands at Speech House, who let us use the field free of charge.

“We trialled a new one-way system this year to try to ease congestion as cars leave the field.

“With around 5,000 cars all wanting to leave in five minutes, it’s always a challenge and we know some people had to wait, but it did work better.

“We’d like to apologise to people affected by the road closures, but altering the traffic flow not only made exiting the site easier, but would have made it easier for the emergency services to access it if their services had been

required.

“We’d like to thank Gloucestershire Police, who helped with cars exiting the site, and the fire service, who were also on site. South West Ambulance even based a vehicle with us for the evening, but it was actually called out within around 10 minutes of arriving.

“All the profits from the events will go to good causes and Severn Dean made some decisions at a meeting on Monday night. We have received at least six applications, which we’ll be reviewing very soon.

“Severn Dean Lions are donating books to local school libraries this year for instance and last year Forest of Dean Lions funded a trailer for Coleford Guides to transport their camping equipment.

“The only restrictions are that we can’t fund religious or political groups at all.”

Alan says that both Lions groups are looking for more volunteers.

To find out more, to join or to apply for funding, visit www.severndeanlions.com or www.forestlions.org.uk