The sun shone on Walton as thousands of people lined the streets in the heat to cheer on the carnival procession.

In all about 30 floats took part in the procession, which started at the Naze car park, moved along the seafront into the town and back to the Bath House Meadow.

Mick Ryan, one of the local businessmen who stepped in to help the carnival out, said: "It went very smoothly and it was very encouraging to see the entries and see that we managed to keep the carnival going."

Earlier this year, it was feared that the carnival would be scrapped after St John Ambulance, which organised of the event, said it did not have enough staff to run it.

On Saturday, the people of Walton were out in force to back it and helped raise about £1,000 from the street collection and the money is still being counted.

The cash will be donated to the various groups which took part in the event.

Published Monday August 19, 2002

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