Free boating trips on the River Stour will be on offer at a special anniversary event in Bures.

The River Stour Trust, with help from Bures Parish Councils and the Environment Agency, is holding an electric boat open day at the village's recreation ground, in Nayland Road.

Part of the trust's 50th birthday celebrations, the aim of the event is to introduce people to the pleasures of electric boating.

The boats available range in size, from dingies to skiffs, and all are fitted with lightweight, low-cost, non-polluting electric outboards.

A spokesman for The River Stour Trust said: "At present these boats are banned from using this part of the river by a bye-law dating back to 1977, even though there is a statutory right of navigation from Sudbury to Flatford, and non-powered craft can travel the whole of the river, but not this stretch through Bures.

"The aim of the open day is to highlight the anomaly of this bye-law, and gather support for it to be amended to allow these environmentally-friendly craft to use the river here.

"Nobody wants large, smoky, polluting petrol and diesel engined boats, but electric craft cause no harm to the local environment, and the bye-law can be suitably worded to just allow them."

The event takes place on Saturday, August 18, between 10am and 4pm.