A Blackburn community organisation held a Halloween extravaganza last night which was attended by hundreds of parents and children.

Shad Chefs – The Council Estate Food Connoisseurs hosted their ‘Halloween Spooktacular’ at The Hub at Shadsworth on Rothesay Road, where they handed out sweets to the community.

The group maintained that the event went “ghoulishly well” and more than 300 parents and children turned up.

However, the team were slightly let down this morning when they discovered the area around The Hub to have been trashed and covered in smashed pumpkins.

The team had organised for the council to come pick up their rubbish but were dismayed to find the rubbish strewn across the floor this morning.

The team are investigating to see if the bad weather or people are behind it while someone is left to clean it up.

David Adams, admin of the group, said: “We need to get to the bottom of whether it’s the wind and rain that’s blown everything all over the place or whether we’ve had a few rogue kids turn up and mess the place up slightly.

Lancashire Telegraph: Shad Chefs – The Council Estate Food Connoisseurs had to clean up smashed pumpkins this morning (Photo: Facebook/@ShadChefs)Shad Chefs – The Council Estate Food Connoisseurs had to clean up smashed pumpkins this morning (Photo: Facebook/@ShadChefs)

“We’re trying the get in contact with the hub as we speak and try and get some CCTV to see if they have.

“If someone has done that it’s a shame to ruin such a good night in that sense.“

However, the benefits of the event far outweigh the downside of the smashed pumpkins.

After leaving Halloween sweets on children’s doors last year, the community group said they wanted to host an event that “shadsworth has never seen before” and let the children come to them.

David Adams said: “I dare say we will be doing it again next year – people loved it. I don’t think Shadsworth has ever seen anything like that on a Halloween event.

“It was a great turnout and brilliant atmosphere despite the weather. Everybody was still in good spirits.

“There were hundreds of children there and we actually ran out of sweets at one point. We all had to run around trying to get the bits we had at home.

“We never expected the turnout that we had. There were 300 or 400 parents and children there.

“Parents were thanking us and saying more events like this should happen.”

At the Halloween event, the group handed out over 250 bags of sweets and also gave kids a chance to hit pinatas. The Harbour Chippy on Rothesay Road also stayed open and gave children free bags of chips.

The Shad Chefs also got into the spirit of spooky season, dressing up as zombie chefs and Pennywise the killer clown from ‘It’.

The group even paid a special visit to 20-year-old Reece, a Shadsworth man who has autism.

David said: “On every event we make sure that we go visit him first before anything else.”

In a Facebook post, they had many people to thank for bringing the event to life. 

They wrote: "Thanks to staff at The Harbour Chippy for staying open and giving the kids free chips.

"Thanks to people that donated decorations, especially the house on Rothesay Road. Big thanks to Emmas Piñatas for the two Piñatas she donated - They went down a storm.

"Massive thanks to Leanne Dewhurst for doing our Halloween make up free of charge. Excellent work.

"Thanks to Tony Humphrys who has arranged for any rubbish to be collected. It's outside The Hub.

"And special thanks to Alan, Elaine and Shadsworth with Whitebirk Big Local for the use of the van and their continued support with anything we do."

To find out more about the Shad Chefs and the Halloween extravaganza, visit their Facebook page.