THIS year’s Liphook Classic Car Day held at The Deer’s Hut raised in excess of £10,000, breaking all previous records.

The proceeds benefitted a number of groups in the parish, including Liphook Scouts, Cubs and Guides, the Day Centre, a meeting place for the elderly, Liphook’s Carnival Committee, the Heritage Centre, located in the Millennium Hall and fire crews based at Liphook, who will donate the funds to their benevolent Firefighters Charity.

It could also help save lives in future, after a new defibrillator was paid for separately by supporters.

The groups collected their cheques at the Griggs Green pub – Val Gaskins and Ian Baker represented the Heritage Centre; Paul Robinson the Day Centre; Stuart Clark and Trevor Holden Scouts and Cubs; Rachel Everett Guides; Sally Cameron the Carnival committee and Ben Traviss and Adam Bennett from Liphook Fire Station.

Ian Smith attended on behalf of sponsors Clark Gammon Wellers, and Deer’s Hut managing director Debbie Steel together with pub manager Jason Eastlake, to present the cheques.

Debbie told The Herald: “We would like to thank everyone who so generously donated money at this year’s 32nd Classic Car Day, which is still a free community event and will continue to be so in the forseeable future.

“The spirit of the day is always about the magnificent new and vintage cars, which together with this year’s increase in motorbike attendances, remain the star attraction.

“Each year the standard of participants has risen and visitor numbers have increased, making Classic Car Day a quality show.

“The money collection always benefits local groups and charities, who deserve our support and who participate and work hard on the day to make it so successful, especially the scouts and guides who brilliantly manage parking and supply endless burgers and hotdogs to hungry visistors.

“I also want to thank our regular customers Sue and Rod Neil for their generous donation to help us install a defibrillator, which we were planning to finance out of the money raised.

“It is so important to have a 24-hour external defibrillator (AED) at Griggs Green, where lots of visitors pass through every day of the year, and we have made ours available to anyone by placing it in our car park.”

The Peak Centre Trust recently ran its first course at the Day Centre (below), instructing participants from organisations and local businesses, including Hampton’s Estate Agents, Liphook in Bloom, the village tennis club and Mobility Shop in how to use a defibrillator

More evening training events will be arranged over the coming months.

Bramshott and Liphook parish councillors have called for a list of defibrillators to be put together and made available to all residents in the parish.

•Other AEDs are located at the Peak Centre, Liphook United Football Club and Bowls Club in Radford Park, The Village Surgery, Churcher’s College Junior School and Liphook Golf Club.