INSURANCE regulations meant donkeys were stopped from leading Palm Sunday processions in south Oxfordshire for the first time in five years.

Donkeys from the Island Farm Donkey Sanctuary at Brightwell-cum-Sotwell traditionally lead congregations through villages and towns every year to mark the start of Holy Week.

But processions in Clifton Hampden and Long Wittenham earlier this month took place without donkeys, as insurance policies needed to transport the animals to and from the services were beyond the churches’ budgets.

Church leaders in Warborough and Dorchester could not find a firm willing to insure their donkey, so they too went without.

The Rev Sue Booys, of Dorchester Abbey, said: “We normally borrow a donkey from the sanctuary and we have someone who drives for us, but this person wasn’t available to drive this year, so we found someone else.

“But they were not insured and we couldn’t get insurance.

“We tried everywhere – it seems to be quite an unusual thing to ask for insurance for.”

“My personal feeling is that it’s slightly barmy,” she added. “It stopped us doing what people have come to enjoy over the last few years.”