A primary school was almost forced to pull out of Saturday’s parade - until social media came to the rescue.

Last Monday, Parkside School, in Aycliffe Road, was told that the company providing scaffolding for its float had pulled out, meaning it had to consider cancelling its appearance at the parade.

But with the power of social networking, one company came to the rescue at the last minute and provided a lorry fully scaffolded and driver for the day for free.

Parent Sarah Kilgallon said: “Without the generosity and help of these guys we would have had to pull out of the festival.

“It is the first year Parkside have participated and the parents and children worked really hard making decorations and costumes and it would have been a real shame for it to have gone to waste.”

Debbie Burrett, a teaching assistant at the school, took the call on the Monday to find out their scaffolder had cancelled.

She said: "Some instantly took to Twitter and Facebook and got the word out. I was so suprised when a company from Bishops Stortford replied to say they'd provide it for free. That is such a nice thing to do as they're not even a local company.

"Without them, we wouldn't have had a float."