ORGANISERS of Honiton Armed Forces Day have apologised for cancelling the event due to a severe weather warning from the Met Office and a "double-booked" church hall.
Town stalwart and Allhallows Museum curator Margaret Lewis who heads-up the Armed Forces Day Committee, said they were "gutted" at their decision to cancel the event on Saturday, June 28.
Usually the main events are planned to take place outside but additional displays are planned for the Mackarness Hall which is booked in the event of wet weather.
Margaret said the committee booked the Mackarness Hall last July through the St Paul's Church parish office, but a few days before the event, they discovered that the hall had been booked for a rag fair.
However a parish office staff member claimed that the hall had not been double booked but had not been "officially" booked in the first place, as no booking form had been received.
Margaret has responded to some criticism on social media relating to the decision to cancel the event, explaining that the majority of attendees are pensioners and children, so consideration for their well being had to be a top priority.
"We were gutted," she said adding that it takes a year to plan the event.
"We book various displays in the hall in addition to outside, and as somewhere for people to go in the event of wet weather," she added.
"We found out quite by chance that the hall had been double booked but decided to continue and make the best of it.
"But when a severe weather warning was made we made the extremely difficult decision to cancel the event out of consideration to the senior citizens and children who make up the majority of the attendees."
An all-day vigil had been planned outside the town's war memorial and an exhibition was planned for the Mackarness Hall.
An afternoon march and display of military vehicles, music, and other performances were also scheduled with all funds raised to go to forces charities.
She added: "It was a really difficult decision and in the end there were only a few showers so we made the wrong call, but it could have been awful."
Margaret confirmed that the committee has booked the hall for next year.
