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THIS is not a ploughed field on a
Nantwich farm, but a normally attractive green area in the
centre of town. Mill Island looked like this after the
Nantwich Food and Drink Festival had taken place.
I am not sure if the damage
was caused by the feet of the many visitors - it's a strange shape
and too concentrated to be a site of the marquees - or the vehicles
which presumably go on to the site to remove whatever goes to make
up the Festival - including the rubbish left behind.
Presumably it wasn't so
neat after the festival closed and has been levelled in a bid to help
the green area get back to its normal state.
The event is good for the
town and I am pleased we host it every
year
but the site is, apparently, going to take three months to recover.
Just in time for the re-enactment of the Battle of Nantwich in
January. And then, no doubt (unless the ground is frozen hard and
damage resistant) the feet of the
 Sealed Knot members will churn it
up again. Will that mean a further three months of an unsightly
surface
So the question is: is this
the right site for the event?
Nantwich Town Councillors
are calling for the event to be re-sited and are deciding whether
they wish to continue contributing £2,000 towards the costs of
running it. Quoted in the Nantwich Chronicle of October 15, Cllr
Arthur Moran (town, borough and county councillor) said: "I was
gobsmacked to see Mill Island is such a mess."
Fellow town and borough
councillor, Cllr Bill McGinnis added: "We really need to consider
whether having Mill Island out of action for three or four months is
worth having the festival there. The site was looking so good this
summer thanks to the efforts of Nantwich in Bloom committee and the
(borough) council staff."
A call two years ago to
move the Festival, which was said to be getting too big, was met with
the comment that businesses involved would suffer if it was
re-sited. But what about the suffering of the town as a whole if
this is the sight to greet visitors?
It has been suggested that
Dorfold Park, on the Chester side of town - the site of Nantwich and
South Cheshire Show, the annual agricultural event - or Reaseheath,
where the Sealed Knot Summer Muster was staged in 2007, could be
ideal sites. The beer festival could still be staged in the Civic
Hall and the Farmers' Market could stay on The Square, it is said. Presumably
it would be staged anyway.
Other contenders for
hosting the festival would be Brookfield Park or Barony Park - both
on the outskirts of the town centre. But why should either be
subjected
to the damage seen at Mill Island?
Back in the early 1970s
there was a public outcry when the revived Holly Holy Day event,
commemorating the Battle of Nantwich, resulted in Barony Park being
churned up.
The festival has, in recent
years, caused problems to people living in the Millfields area
because the event blocked off Mill Island from the town centre and residents had to take
a longer route into town via Welsh Row.
That
problem was solved by laying a footpath across one side of the
Island (right), and constructing a temporary fence at the side of it
during the festival weekend to
contain the event.
If a fence is acceptable
why cannot the powers-that-be insist that duck boards are laid
inside the marquees and on the main routes across the site to
protect the ground?
If anyone objects to the
additional cost, they might consider the loss they would make if the
event was barred from Nantwich's green spaces altogether.
No one wants to lose the
festival altogether, but if that is the price we would have to pay
to keep the town looking good, is that not something we should
do? The shopkeepers would not wish that to be the case in these
financially difficult times. See below.
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