PENDLE: Barrowford Show - yobs leave £1,500 bill

Barrowford Show - yobs leave £1,500 bill

THE Barrowford Show committee has to find nearly £1,500 to pay the cost of Pendle Council clearing up after "mindless yobs" scattered bales of straw around Bull Holme playing fields and tried to set fire to some of it.

The £1,450·89 bill arrived with show manager Mr Graham Midgeley this week, who said: "I was as sick as the proverbial parrot when I read the amount. I knew it was going to be dear – six men working on a Bank Holiday, three pick-up trucks, a tractor and a skip. I was so upset because everyone had worked hard, the show was one of the best in years, the crowds turned out and then a bunch of mindless yobs, young hooligans, do something stupid, making it a nightmare for us."

Fifteen bales of tinder-dry straw were still awaiting collection when vandals struck on Bank Holiday Monday at the end of August, the day after the show. They opened the bales, stacked near the pavilion, and made them into a mound so they could jump off the roof. They tried to set fire to some of it and kicked more bales around, scattering straw over Bull Holme.

The police, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service and Pendle Council were called in.

On the Saturday before the show when the straw was delivered, youngsters crept into a marquee where it was being stored and opened 10 bales.

Mr Midgeley said: "The straw was stored out of sight but while everyone was working setting up the show, young vandals just had to get in there and start mucking around – they cannot leave anything alone."

Originally Mr Midgeley did say there would be no straw bales for people to sit on next year, but told us: "If we can guarantee getting them delivered on show day and taken away immediately afterwards, perhaps we might have some next year but the committee will have to decide. There were about 35 bales ordered and some were collected by the supplier. It was just the remainder awaiting collection and what happened to them that has caused all this financial misery. I would like to ask the parents of the children who caused this expensive havoc: Are they prepared to pay for the damage their kids caused?"

Police have been informed and photos of the scattered and burnt straw sent to them, together, we understand, with photos of some of the perpetrators.

The show committee meets next month, when the financial outcome of this year's show will be known – and whether next year's show is likely to be thrown into jeopardy.

http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/nelson-news/Barrowford-Show--yobs-leave.3255924.jp