Festival plans weren’t helped by council

The grass near the bandstand in the Pump Room Gardens was disturbed, I think by Severn Trent, and re-seeded instead of re-turfed. Re-turfed grass would have been up to the events that are regularly held in the gardens.

The Peace Festival organisers are all volunteers who organise this fantastic festival, praised by our mp in last week’s Courier, without payment. The festival raises its own funds thanks to donations from our stallholders who otherwise pay a very small fee for their pitch.

Planning takes most of the year and positioning the stalls is complex. Imagine being told, having spent £1,000 on printing the programme with full plan, that the re-seeded area in the middle of the site would be fenced off. Had any warning been given, plans could have been re-jigged. It wasn’t.

So a new plan has been devised, causing loads of extra work and worry.

Everyone is grateful to the council for providing the venue, but why can’t they offer more small in-kind support? Once we were allowed to put small posters on the approaches to town and a banner on the Pump Room Gardens approach but no longer. This was disallowed a couple of years ago.

The new arches are not friendly to a larger vehicle, and it’s not just the peace festival that uses those - what about Mela and the food fair?

Whoever was responsible for re-seeding instead of re-turfing should stand up and be counted, and whoever selected the height of the arches should do likewise. Damage to an arch could result in a six-figure bill.

The council is here to serve us, and notionally at least, the Pump Room Gardens belong to us all.

And please give due praise to those who organise the festival in their spare time for all to enjoy for free. - Name and address supplied.