Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Anger after event leads to chaos on the roads
THE Royal Bath & West Society has apologised after an event at the showground sparked traffic chaos and led to the closure of a nearby school.
The NASS festival is taking place throughout this weekend, attracting a huge crowd of mostly younger people.
Although the event is not organised by the society itself, it said it was sorry for the chaos and was investigating what had caused it.
In a statement, it said: “The Royal Bath & West Society wishes to apologise profusely for the turmoil caused on the local roads around Shepton Mallet on 11th July as the NASS Festival was getting under way.
“The level of travel disruption was unacceptable and will not be tolerated again.
“Vision Nine Group are the hosts of the event, which is licensed by Mendip District Council. The event has been held on the showground for many years and for the last four years has run very smoothly with minimal disruption to the local community.
“As part of the licensing process, Vision Nine Group had to provide a traffic management plan to the safety advisory group before their licence was granted. It is obvious that this plan did not work, which is very regrettable.
“The society’s priority now is to
make sure that when visitors leave on Monday morning that Vision Nine Group have in place a deliverable plan that manages the exiting of the site far more effectively.”
The Mendip School was forced to shut yesterday because of the disruption.
Head teacher Natalie Hanna wrote to parents on Thursday evening to tell them the school would be closed the following day.
She claimed the organisation of the event had been “less effective” than in previous years and believed it was in the “best interest of the pupils” not to attend school while people travelled to the event.
The school caters for children aged four to nine with autistic spectrum disorders and speech, language and communication needs.
Local residents were also infuriated on Thursday at the long delays.
Paul Andrewartha wrote on Twitter: “Really really poor road management for NASS 2019 around Shepton Mallet.
“It has taken me an hour to drive around the back roads from Strattonon-the-Fosse to Lamyatt.”
Another comment said: “Absolutely ridiculous, 2hrs 15 to get home from work!! Usually a 45 min journey.”