The people of Billericay have been urged to shake off their Millennium fatigue and to help inject some new life into the town's preparations.

According to Billericay Town Council, which is organising the celebrations, the dawning of the year 2000 has so far inspired little more than apathy among local residents, who are proving reluctant to get involved.

But the council has refused to give up and has again appealed to local residents, businesses and groups to donate their time, ideas and money to make the Millennium something that the whole community will remember.

The biggest problem is a lack of cash, with nearly all of the town council's £4,000 Millennium budget already committed to pay for a huge firework display that will follow the torchlight procession and service on New Year's Eve.

As a result, the council is looking for sponsors willing to pay between £20 and £100 to sponsor the display, in a bid to raise enough cash to finance some of its other projects.

They include a fire beacon at Sun Corner, an historic town walk, a strongest man competition, a children's statue, a water spout and a gazebo for Lake Meadows, an embroidered history of Billericay, a pancake race and a time capsule.

Newly elected town council chairman Cllr Trevor Stansfield said: "I am afraid to say the public response has not been good so far and we are lacking a bit of support.

"What we are really short of is some money to be able to get the peripheral things done. For example, we have a stage and we have the tarpaulin and scaffolding to make a cover for it, but we need some sort of lighting.

"We really would like the people of the town to get involved. It would be great if we could generate some community spirit in the town, if everybody could cough up something, just like they do for the Christmas lights every year."

Letters offering local businesses the chance to sponsor the firework display are due to be sent out next week.

Donations should be made out to the Billericay Town Council Mille-nnium Fund and sent to the town clerk, Billericay Town Council, FREEPOST ANG 2887, Billericay CM12 9ZZ.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.