Wallingford Rotary Club was formed in the 1960s and has been raising thousands of pounds for charity ever since.

The club was established in the days when staff working for local businesses had no problem devoting some of their spare time to work hard on behalf of good causes both at home and abroad.

Now both parents in a family often work, and people find themselves much more pressed for time.

With an ageing membership and a lack of new members, it was only a question of time before the Rotary club folded.

But Wallingford is fortunate, as a second Rotary club was formed in the 1980s and it has agreed to try to take on some of the other club’s projects when it closes.

The town’s only surviving Rotary club needs to recruit members at the earliest possible opportunity or it could face the same outcome — and this would be a disaster for charitable causes in the area.