Traffic delays at showground after unprecedented attendance

VISITORS TO the Great Yorkshire Show faced the worst traffic delays for more than a decade as organisers expected to have recorded their best ever attendance for the second day of the nation’s showpiece agricultural event.

The arrival of sunshine and blue skies brought what was thought to have been an unprecedented number of show-goers to Harrogate yesterday, although the knock-on effect was major problems on the roads, both in the morning and as the day’s proceedings came to an end.

Early congestion was compounded by a crash on the A658 near Knaresborough at 8.30am, said Nigel Morgan, operations director for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.

He said Wednesday was always the busiest day of the show, typically attracting 2,000 to 3,000 more people than usual.

On most years, visitors are parked up by 11.30am but this year the last of the vehicles caught up in the delays arrived just after 1.30pm, Mr Morgan said.

The society made every effort to make people aware of what was going on by posting on social media and asking people to be patient.

Mr Morgan said the problems were compounded by the earlier crash, adding: “We apologised but this was really beyond our control as it was not the fault of our traffic management plans. It’s down to the popularity of the show which now people are putting in their diaries and shows the demand each year is growing.”

A spokeswoman for the Yorkshire Agricultural Society has asked for patience and said that traffic flows began moving at 8.30pm.