COIN throwers are being told to steer clear of Bridport Carnival this weekend.

People who hurl pennies at entries are not only putting the participants at risk - they could be sealing the event's fate forever.

Carnival chairman David Dear warned: "If it continues in Bridport then, like Weymouth, we will seriously have to consider the future of the carnival.

"We just cannot allow people to get injured by a minority throwing coins. They are doing it deliberately and it has to stop."

An army of collectors and special vehicles will be at Saturday night's parade. And that has helped in the past to reduce the number of incidents of entrants getting hurt by flying coins. "But we still have a minority doing it," Mr Dear said.

"We cannot accept people throwing money at floats and walking entries."

He thought that most of the culprits were youngsters, whose parents watched while they did it. And he appealed for the public's support in stamping out the problem. "I would like to enlist the help of the 99.9 per cent of the people who come along to enjoy the procession," Mr Dear said.

"We do appreciate their support. Without them, there wouldn't be a carnival. I would ask them to stop those that they see throwing coins at the entries."

Mr Dear's DT6 Carnival Club regularly takes part in Somerset's floodlit carnival circuit, which takes place later in the year. "We've been doing it for 20 years and no-one would dream of throwing coins there, so why does it happen at Weymouth and Bridport?" he said.

The carnival parade begins at 7pm. There will be activities throughout the day, including a performance by a re-enactment group near the Bull Hotel, in Bridport's East Street, at 2pm, to mark the 350th anniversary of the flight of Charles Stuart through the town.

Entries are flooding in, following an earlier appeal by Mr Dear for more floats. "It should be a great procession. We've still got room for more if anyone has late entries."