THE future of Westhoughton's Festival Queen competition is in doubt after this year's event was totally ignored by local girls.

The competition failed to attract any entrants and even members of the festival committee itself - and the judges themselves - did not turn up.

And now the town's Deputy Mayor, Kath Dawson, is questioning the need for a festival queen.

Cllr Mrs Dawson told a council meeting that she was asked to help judge the competition at Wingates Labour Club but on the night there were no entries and none of the festival committee or even judges turned up.

Cllr Mrs Dawson said: "The following day I rang all the neighbouring high schools to see why there had been no interest and was shocked to find out that only one of the schools had received the information soon enough to put it up on the notice board. The other schools had received the information too late to do anything about it."

Cllr Dawson said she had talked to the retiring festival queen who said she was disillusioned about what her duties were as she had been on very few throughout the year.

"The question that we need to ask is do we really need a festival queen and if so what are her duties?" asked Cllr Dawson.

Cllr David Wilkinson said that it was sad that there had been such a poor response and there would have to be a reassessment. He said it would have to be decided whether interest could be reactivated and if new events could be put in place.

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