COLOURFUL characters made of straw proved a huge hit at this year's Scarecrow Fesival in Halesworth.

Over the past few days more than 70 scarecrows have been attracting admiring glances from visitors to the town.

The event, organised by Halesworth Town Centre Group, raised funds for the Christmas lights fund.

Rita Doughty, owner of Merlin Shoes in The Thoroughfare, said: 'It's been an absolutely fantastic festival. It brought quite a few people to the town and everyone was taking photos.

'We did it last year for the first time as a tester for one day. It was so successful so we did it for a week this time. It will be a permanent fixture on the Halesworth calendar now.'

Mrs Doughty said she was delighted to see so many scarecrows on display around the town with everyone taking part including local businesses, organisations and schools.

The man with the toughest task was Halesworth councillor Tony Goldson who judged the entries.

'It's been brilliant. The standard of all the scarecrows was extremely high and I am so pleased that the competition helped attract more visitors to the town.

'It has been extremely difficult picking the winners but the three finalists really deserve their place,' he said.

The winning scarecrow was created by staff at the Children's Society charity shop in Halesworth, with Edwards Restaurant second and Halesworth Vision third.

The congregation at St Mary's Church, Halesworth, received a special commendation for the scarecrows they built and used to decorate the church for the harvest festival service.These included scarewcrows dressed as choirboys and bell ringers.