ABERGAVENNY'S annual Ice Fair, which attracted more than 2,000 children last year, will not take place this Christmas.

The event is the latest to suffer from the tough budget cuts imposed by Monmouthshire county council's cabinet this year, which have seen more than 40 jobs lost in the leisure department and £3 million savings made.

The cuts included axing the four area committees' £15,000 budgets some £60,000 in total.

The loss of this money led the Bryn y Cwm area committee coming to the decision at their meeting last week to cancel the fifth Ice Fair in the market hall.

Abergavenny town council had pledged £2,500 towards the £8,000 cost, and community councils have promised some money, but the Abergavenny Chamber of Trade could not donate anything because all their resources have gone into setting up a £5,000 fighting fund to finance their possible legal challenge against the county council's scheme for the cattle market site.

Area manager Dale Roberts said everyone was sad that the fifth Ice Fair had to be cancelled.

He said: "We still had a shortfall of £4,000, and although there was the chance we could have had some more from the town council we decided not to risk staging the event.

"It costs almost £4,000 to hire the synthetic ice rink and each entertainer costs us £250 a day.

"We want to put on a quality event, and we did consider charging the children a nominal £1 each, but realistically that would only have brought in around £2,000."

He said the event was organised by the area team as a way of putting something back into the community.

However, it had only been possible with the help of volunteers from the Borough Theatre, and the willingness of market hall staff to work long hours preparing the hall after the Saturday market and clearing up afterwards.