TRANENT’S annual fireworks display at Polson Park will not go ahead in 2023, after the town's community council said it was too time-consuming to organise.

The display, which is run annually by Tranent and Elphinstone Community Council, was one of few free public bonfire night fireworks events in the county last year.

At a meeting of the community council last November, concerns were raised that the organising of the display was too time-consuming and difficult for members of the group.

A proposal was made to attempt to pass the running of the display over to interested members of the public, who would form a group tasked with organising the display.

However, it has now been revealed that talks were unsuccessful and the display has been cancelled for 2023.

Mike Falconer, chair of the community council, said in a statement: “We are very sad to announce that Tranent and Elphinstone Community Council (TECC) will not be able to organise the annual family fireworks in Polson Park for November 2023.

“The event is extremely time-consuming and technically difficult to organise, and requires more bodies and time than TECC are able to provide.

"We have tried since November to enlist the support of volunteers from the community and although there was some interest in this, we felt this was insufficient to ensure the event could be organised on time, safely and successfully.

“However, if this situation changes for 2024 or subsequent years and we are able to muster sufficient support for the event from the community, we will look at this again.

“We would like to thank all of those hard-working volunteers who have helped to organise and support this event for so many years.”

A meeting had been held last month with members of the public who had expressed an interest in taking over the organisation of the display.

At the time, Mr Falconer said that talks were “successful” and that he was hopeful a display would go ahead. However, it has now been revealed that the interest was insufficient to ensure the display could run again.

He told the Courier: "We have been trying to get a group of volunteers from the community together to take over the display since November and we had some interest from the Rotary Club of Tranent and a four or five other volunteers.

"We had a few meetings but unfortunately a few of those interested could no longer commit and it's all just fell apart.

"The planning needs to begin now, and it just wasn't going to work to get a display put together."

Mr Falconer said that even if a group was to get together now, it would be too late to organise a display for this year.

He said: "The planning has to begin now, we have been trying for months to get people together and it has not happened. It is too late now to begin organising.

"We're very sad it won't be happening and wish we could make it happen. We will never say never for the future, but it won't be happening in 2023."