Ashfield Show bust budget by £166,000!

The show was reinstated as a two-day spectacular, starring chart-topping girl group Sugababes, at Sutton Lawn in Sutton-in-Ashfield in August.

But the bill for extra security and unexpected costs completely blew the budget and reached 340,000.

The news will be hard to swallow for council-tax payers in Hucknall and the rest of the district.

For the council have recently revealed that they need to make cuts amounting to about 5.8 million in the coming years or they face the prospect of going bankrupt.

Already 1 million worth of savings have been approved, with widespread changes to services such as grass-cutting and churchyard maintenance.

Explaining the overspend on the show, a council spokesman said: "The safety of visitors to Ashfield Show is always paramount and most of the expenditure can be put down to investment in additional infrastructure to ensure our health and safety obligations were met."

He added that bad weather meant the council had to lay a metal surface on the showground and work had to be carried out after the event to make repairs to the surface.

The spokesman also said there were lower-than-expected levels of sponsorship for the event.

The show was organised while the Liberal Democrats were the ruling party at the council. And they were criticised this week by the new Labour administration.

However, Coun Jason Zadrozny (Lib Dem) claims the show could have cost less than ever before.

He said his party put in place five-figure sponsorship deals with the likes of Tesco but these fell through after they were ousted from power in March.

He also claims the overspend was partly down to a last-minute decision by the new Labour-led administration to make the Sugababes performance all-ticket. This meant the capacity was restricted to 15,000 people.

Coun Zadrozny said: "We had a licence application lined up that would have meant 35,000 people being able to watch Sugababes. There would have been no need for extra security.

"We liaised with the police months beforehand and they were happy with our plans. What's the point in having the best free concert in the Midlands and then stopping people going to it?

"It was my plan to make this event cheaper, not more expensive. I still think Ashfield Show is the right thing for the community. I hope they (councillors in power) do not take an axe to it."

But the council's current leader, Coun John Knight (Lab), said the Liberal Democrats could have done more to secure funding themselves.

He added: "In terms of making it a 35,000-capacity event, he is living on another planet.

"Ashfield did not have the capacity to cope with it. Ashfield is not Woodstock. It should have been an event for working-class people and their families and it cost a small fortune.

"We would have cancelled the whole lot but everything was already in place. I think it is an excessive amount."

Support came from Coun John Wilmott (Lab), of Hucknall, who is deputy leader.

He said: "The show has to be manageable and an event the people of Ashfield are proud of.

"The extra cost is down to having Sugababes. At the time, I was concerned about the budget."

Coun Gail Turner (Ind), leader of the Independent and Conservative Alliance at Ashfield, said the figures needed to be broken down to find out the true cost of the event.

The council's audit committee will discuss the cost of the show during a meeting in mid-December. He said: “The show has to be manageable and an event the people of Ashfield are proud of.

“The extra cost is down to having Sugababes. At the time, I was concerned about the budget.”

Coun Gail Turner (Ind), leader of the Independent and Conservative Alliance at Ashfield, said the figures needed to be broken down to find out the true cost of the event.

The council’s audit committee will discuss the cost of the show during a meeting in mid-December.