Royal Lancashire Show 'axed indefinitely' over row (From Preston and Leyland Citizen)

Royal Lancashire Show 'axed indefinitely' over row

2:54pm Monday 26th October 2009

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THE Royal Lancashire Show has been axed indefinitely, bosses have announced.

Royal Lancashire Agricultural Society chiefs say financial backing for the summer 2010 show at Samlesbury Hall was withdrawn after problems agreeing a suitable access to the site.

The society will now be ‘mothballed’ and its commercial arm wound up with the loss of two jobs.

RLAS say it was in the process of preparing a traffic plan when they met with ‘an uncooperative attitude’ from the authorities.

However the Ribble Valley Event Safety Advisory Group, which includes Lancashire Police and Ribble Valley Borough Council, said it was waiting for an event safety plan.

The news comes after a number of previous shows were cancelled due funding and weather problems.

Plans to host the event at Samlesbury Hall struck difficulties when use of the access road off Barker Brow was refused by a landowner, according to organisers.

Company secretary David Marriott said: “The society has decided the company has to go into mothballs.

"The county show will not go ahead, and probably won’t ever again.

“We had financial support for next year’s show but came across a major situation when we were denied use of an access road to parking areas we had used in the past.

“We had an alternative but the council refused to accept these proposals, without even waiting for us to finalise the plans.

"Our financial support from local businesses was then withdrawn.”

A Ribble Valley council spokeswoman said there had been ‘some discussion’ of traffic plans but an invitation to the society to attend a meeting had been declined.

A spokesman for the safety advisory group, which comprises Ribble Valley Borough Council, Lancashire police, Lancashire Highways, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and the North West Ambulance Service, said: “Last month, the organisers of the Royal Lancashire Show advised us that they were looking to hold next year’s event in Ribble Valley.

“Following a meeting with the Royal Lancashire Show Society, we requested an event safety plan for the proposed event, but unfortunately this has not been forthcoming.

“We have not been officially informed of their decision to cancel the show.”

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