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Smiles are in short supply in the Surrey village of Ash...the annual ‘Fun Day’ has been scrapped by the parish council this year because not enough people want to have a laugh.

A spokesman said there are ‘no plans in place’ to stage a 2015 Ash Fun Day because ‘last year’s attendance of around 1,000 people was not worth the time and effort’.

The event has taken place annually for several years, and on what must have been one particularly joyful occasion it attracted 2,000 chuckling visitors.

But the slump has left organisers with long faces and feeling down in the dumps, wondering what they have to do to get more of the 6,120 inhabitants to break into a grin.

Taking place in the Ash community centre and on the adjacent recreation ground, the fun day traditionally hosted an array of private and commercial stalls, with children’s games run by the Happy Days Pre-School.

“Each year the organisers set it all up and then cross their fingers that people come along” said Nigel Manning, the parish council chairman.

“But the numbers have not been holding up so we haven’t organised one for this year yet.

poll loading How fun are family fun days? 0+ VOTES SO FAR Amazing fun Quite good fun Average fun Not very good fun No fun to be had whatsoever

“The weather was good last year but we didn’t have the numbers we were hoping for.

“When it’s really hot, people tend to go down to the coast. If you’re spending the money, you want as many people to come along as possible.”

He said charities and community organisations at past fun days have not paid to hold a stall, whereas commercial organisations, such as last year’s birds of prey handler, pay a percentage of their takings back to the parish council, for whom the day usually costs around £750 to stage.

He said it won’t be too late to have a last-minute change of heart and organise a fun day ‘if there was an appetite after the parish council elections next month’.

“The new council that gets elected may not be interested in doing it, but they’d still be able to organise it if it needs be” he said.

He thought that switching the fun day to a biennial event might help to retain its ‘sparkle’ and bring smiling Ash folk out in their droves.

Some of the children’s competitions that have traditionally taken place at the fun day will now be switched to this year’s health and well-being event.

Called Let’s Get Moving, it is scheduled for the same location on August 22nd, and organisers are hoping it will prove more successful than the Fun Day.

Let’s Get Moving will be focused around a ‘marketplace of health and well-being’, featuring stallholders as diverse as pilates instructors and citizens’ advice.