EARLEY bucked the annual trend after hosting the first dry green fair for the last 10 years last Saturday.

Early's "biggest" community event hosted environmental, charity and trade stalls, and was hailed as a "tremendous success".

Children were seen basking in the sunshine tucking into ice creams and home baked treats whilst adults learned about the importance of looking after the environment.

Grahame Hawker, senior park ranger for Earley Town Council, said he was delighted with the turnout for this year's event, held at the Maiden Erleigh nature reserve in Beech Lane.

"The green fair was tremendously successful, and it was the first dry fair for the past ten years," Mr Hawker said.

"When the weather is dry it brings out more people to come and enjoy the fair, so all in all it was fantastic.

"This is probably our biggest community event, it's a fair for the community, a place where people can come together."

The fair hosts numerous 'green' stalls which highlight the importance of thinking green and looking after the environment.

Mr Hawker said everyone needs to club together to ensure we look after the environment.

He said: "The message of the green fair is that the world is a delicate place and we all need to tread lightly.

"We are just one of many species on this planet and hopefully the green fair gives residents and idea of what we need to be thinking about to help the environment.

"Every problem the planet has is a man made problem, we all need to buck our ideas up and stop spoiling the ocean and putting carbon monoxide into the atmosphere."

The 56-year-old added that the Wildflower verges across Earley received particular praise from residents.

He said the dry weather this year had prevented the flowers from growing as well as he would have liked, but he is already planning on making the verges bigger and better next year.

Mr Hawker also paid tribute to Ashley Prior, park ranger at Earley Town Council, who he said was a tremendous help in organising the fair, which takes 12 months to piece together.