During the month of December, members of Harpenden Roundtable braved downpours of rain and windy weather to bring Father Christmas to children and families in the town.

The Roundtable Santa charity collection is something of a tradition in Harpenden and this year it raised £7,700 for four charities.

Graham Halkyard, table chairman, said: "Each year, we collect for various local children’s charities as well as the national Roundtable Children’s Wish charity and this year, we are proudly supporting four charities.

"Some of our members' families have had cause to use the services of some of these charities so it was very special for us to be able to help them give something back."

Each year the Roundtable aims to raise over £7,000, which is split between all four charities.

These include Auditory Verbal UK which helps children with hearing impairments, the Children’s Wards at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, TOFS who support families with children born unable to swallow and Roundtable Children’s Wish, who grant the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.

Dominic Rowley, collection organiser, said this was particularly impressive as on December 23 a collection was cancelled because of the high winds and driving rain.

He said: "Santa’s sleigh was actually damaged.

"We had to get together and make emergency repairs so that we could get out on Christmas Eve.

"Thankfully we were able to cover nearly all of both areas on the 24th which was great because the children were ready and waiting to see Santa so close to the big day."

Harpenden Roundtable received a great deal of assistance with the collection. Members of the local 41 club, Lions club, Circle and the Harpenden 9th Scouts all provided vital help.

Mr Halkyard added: "We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone that helped.

"Without the support of our friends in the other clubs and the scouts we would never be able to cover such large areas.

"In particular, we would like to thank the people of Harpenden who have been incredibly generous, with the tough economic times and with the horrendous weather, we were anticipating a dip in our collection total this year. "But the people of Harpenden have once again proved to be both generous and kind."

To make a donation visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Santa455 or to find out about Harpenden Roundtable visit http://www.harpenden.roundtable.co.uk/table-pages/.