Luton’s Carnival was cancelled for the first time in 30 years and Liberal Democrat councillor Andy Strange says he feels for the thousands of local people, many of them local children, who put in a huge effort to make it the biggest and best ever.

“I was personally very disappointed, but I am more concerned about the effect on the young people from local schools and community groups who have worked hard for many months preparing for carnival.”

“Obviously, because of the flooding of the key sites it would not have been safe to allow the event to go ahead at the weekend, but I don’t understand why the event was cancelled instead of being postponed to a later date.”

“It may be difficult to organise the full works, but surely some kind of event could be arranged so that those who have put so much effort into making floats and costumes can still have a chance to show off their work to friends and family.”