A MUCH-NEEDED fundraiser in aid of wildlife rescue centre Oak and Furrows has been postponed due to poor ticket sales.

The event, planned at De Vere Cotswold Hotel on October 27, only resulted in 14 tickets being sold, with only a month to go before the event. The music and big buffet dinner was arranged to secure much needed funds due to a rise in wildlife care, from 3000 patients in 2015 to 5,300 in the past 15 months.

Chairman of Oak Furrows' trustees Robin Thompson said: “We are devastated but plan to re-launch the event within the next six months. The De Vere management team has given us great support in enabling us to do this and we are extremely grateful to them.

"We are also grateful to our music acts, the Sapphires ladies quartet, Cirencester’s Elvis Presley, singer Andy Hughes and compere Mark Cummings from BBC Radio Gloucestershire for their great understanding of the problem we faced and have promised to support us in the future.

"We were already planning a major event next March and it is possible we will merge the two events to create a huge attraction to secure desperately needed funds. Again we are sorry that this postponement has occurred, but with the event, only a month away, was just not viable."

Oak and Furrows is urgently seeing further funding. Donations should be sent to the charity at Blakehill Nature Reserve, Malmesbury Road, Leigh, Cricklade, Wiltshire, SN6 6RA.