One of the great things about living in Lymm is the wealth of community activities, run by volunteers, covering many different aspects of village life. Without doubt everyone from mothers with new babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults with many special interests and the senior citizens of Lymm benefit enormously from this choice of activities and services. It is this range of activities that makes Lymm feel like a village rather than an anonymous dormitory suburb.

The big events like Carols around the Cross, the Duck Race, Dickensian Day and the May Queen, as well as the Lymm Summer Festival all attract thousands of people and are an important part of the Lymm Calendar.

However there is a problem. To continue successfully the committees that run these events have to renew themselves. When I started the Lymm Parish Council Community Fair we found that it was quite easy to get members of these committees to lay out their stalls in the Parish Hall. However, the aim of the Fairs was two-fold, to let Lymm residents see what is on offer and to find new volunteers. Sadly the event has largely failed on both counts. Very few people attending the fair wanted (or needed ?) a one-stop-shop to find out what is going in the Village, and only a small number came to volunteer their services.

This means that all the community activity in the village rests on the shoulders of a core group of volunteers probably counted in dozens rather than hundreds. It is usually relatively easy to find volunteers willing to provide the core activity, to work with youngsters or to put on events. What is much harder is finding those who will deal with the finances and bureaucracy associated with any activity that needs to be accountable to the public, and those with the practical skills to look after the infrastructure, buildings, vehicles sound equipment or permanent installations.

Inevitably volunteer fatigue sets in. Pressures of work, family life, moving out of the village or just exhaustion set in. Replacing volunteers, particularly for the back-room tasks isn’t easy.

As public funding has dwindled, a situation that can only become much worse over the coming decade, community groups find themselves constantly competing for grants and funds. This can set different activities in different locations against each other rather than encouraging cooperation. That adds another pressure that can simply put volunteers off. All these problems were very well summarised in letters to the Guardian after the Conservative “Big Society” policy was announced.

In a time of scarce resources it is important for community groups to work together. I very much hope that what started as the Community Fair can develop into a more permanent forum for volunteers in Lymm. In the near future it is going to be very important for community organisations to pull together rather than pull apart. Such a forum may help groups to be realistic about the human and financial resources available and the real needs of the village.