DARING dragon boat racers took to the River Avon in Chippenham on Saturday for one of the town's most spectacular events.

Ten teams raced the boats with dragon heads breathing fire along the river at Monkton Park to the sound of drums. Each team made up of 16 paddlers and a drummer paddled their way along the water in a series of races.

The seventh running of the event organised by the Rotary Club of Chippenham Wiltshire Vale was a huge success but organiser Len Goodrich was disappointed that posters advertising the races were taken down by Wiltshire Council.

He said: "In the past the council has turned a blind eye about the posters being up for several weeks before the event but this time they just went around taking them down without even telling us.

"It was a fantastic day but I think we could have had even more people there if we had been allowed to have the posters up. I don't see they were doing any harm."

But despite this blip hundreds of people turned out in the sunshine to enjoy the racing and to take part in Art In The Park. It provided sideshows, stalls and refreshments to keep families busy when not watching the dragon boats.

Winners of the dragon race was a team from Ultra-Warm in Corsham with the Radnor Arms in Corston second and the Amber charity third.

The team from St Margaret's Preparatory School, Calne, took the best fancy dress prize. Mr Goodrich said: "We didn't have so many people in fancy dress this year but we gave the prize to St Margaret's as they looked so smart."

Each team could raise money for a charity of their choice and Mr Goodrich expects the total raised for good causes this year will be between £10,000 and £12,000.

He said: "We had no mishaps with anyone falling in the river and we were very lucky with weather. We had good support from Chippenham Town Council and a number of firms who sponsored us.

"It is a lot of work but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was an excellent day."

A spokesman for Wiltshire Council said: "

“We have a statutory duty to keep the county clean and safe, so we’d advise all businesses and event organisers who wish to advertise in this way to contact us first. Unauthorised posters and stickers in public places is fly-posting  and will spoil the environment as well as potentially causing safety issues if they reduce visibility on the highway."