Is this the end for Cromer and Sheringham Crab & Lobster Festival? Seaside resort set to be dropped from event

Andrew Clark, left, eight, and his brother, Lewis, seven, meet a lobster shown to them by Tom Bridges, marine science officer at Eastern IFCA at the Crab and Lobster Festival at Cromer. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2017)

Cromer and Sheringham put their differences aside to promote their seafaring heritage by staging an annual festival. And the event attracted hundreds of visitors to the North Norfolk seaside resorts each summer.

Now it has emerged that Cromer and Sheringham Crab and Lobster Festival is set to come to an end.

Cromer Town Council's promotion and development committee heard Sheringham did not have enough volunteers to continue and it is now considering changing the name of the event to drop their neighbours from it altogether.

However, a pub landlord has vowed to continue with his own celebrations in Sheringham regardless.

The East Coast pirates at the Crab and Lobster Festival at Cromer. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2017)

Festival chairman Tony Shipp said: 'We had a very successful Crab and Lobster Festival with good crowds in Cromer on both days. We have some new members on the committee and the future is now looking much brighter.

'Sadly this is not the case in Sheringham. [They] have decided not to continue the festival there due to lack of help. I think this emphasises how lucky we are in Cromer to have so much voluntary support for the events we put on in the town.'

Mr Shipp added that the problem had 'been going on for a number of years'.

He said: 'As it grew, the volunteers from Cromer were unable to help Sheringham out as much as we would have liked.

Tom Bridges, marine science officer at Eastern IFCA with a crab at the Crab and Lobster Festival at Cromer. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2017)

'Obviously I'm really sad about it because Sheringham was beginning to get it together and was making something on the event on the Sunday. We were linking the events in the two towns nicely but we can't just demand volunteers.'

Plans for the future of the name have not yet been set in stone but Mr Shipp believed it would continue under the name the Crab and Lobster Festival or Cromer Crab and Lobster Festival, with the event continuing in Cromer.

Organisers from Sheringham also plan to continue a scaled-down version of the event from the town's Lobster Inn, on High Street.

Landlord Graham Deans said: 'It's just one day of events which are held in Sheringham throughout the year. It will still run at the Lobster during the same weekend of the Crab and Lobster Festival. We will just slightly change what we do.'

Tony Shipp, Cromer Carnival Chairman. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Archant)

Retired fisherman, William Cox, braids a crab pot at the Crab and Lobster Festival at Cromer. Picture: DENISE BRADLEY (Image: Copyright: Archant 2017)