Major 80s concert will go ahead in Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury Town Council decided the county show and Let’s Rock Shrewsbury would both continue on May 27, despite protests from trustees of the county show.

Trustee of the West Midlands Showground, Ryan Jervis, spoke at a town council meeting on Monday evening to ask councillors to withdraw permission for the concert which will take place in the Quarry.

Mr Jervis added: “Shropshire County Show has been regarded as one of the main events of the county.

“We inherited a £150,000 debt in 2009 and this year we hoped to make the final repayment to our creditors, but the show is not out of the woods.

“You can imagine our disappointment to find Shrewsbury Town Council had agreed for the Quarry to be hired out for a major concert with little or no thought of the impact for the Shropshire County Show.

“The Let’s Rock Shrewsbury event will open at 10am and entertainment will start at 12pm, this being a clear attempt to entice our normal early attendees.

“We want assurances from the town council that the county show is protected now and in the future.

“The show ground is only 600 metres away from the Quarry as the crow flies, so to suggest they won’t impact each other is at best hopeful and at worst naïve.”

Mr Jervis added that trustees had concerns about the parking in the town.

He said: “Where are people going to park? The show ground will not be available.

"The promoter is targeting 10,000 tickets and our attendance is about 15,000, together with the normal Saturday traffic we would suggest the two events will bring Shrewsbury to a standstill.

“The society invests over £100,000 in the show and provides a wealth of charitable and employment opportunities.

“We would be delighted if councillors withdrew permission for the Quarry event to go ahead on May 27, both on the grounds of public safety and the impact this will have on the finances of Shropshire County Show.”

Town Clerk Helen Ball said in the summer the town is getting to the stage where it has more events than weekends.

She said: “The promoter of this event is the promoter we’ve had in the past, for Jessie J and Status Quo, he has quite a successful track record.

“In terms of safety and security, he’s exemplary.

“He asked us if he could have it in July which clashed with a number of events, namely the food festival.

“Of the 4,500 or 5,000 tickets sold, more than half are not from the area.”

One councillor said he was “embarrassed” about the situation.

Councillor Jon Tandy said: “I’m a bit embarrassed about this the county show is important to the town. We should be supporting it to make sure this oversight doesn’t happen again.

“It brings in loads of visitors and we should know when that event is on.

“I’m embarrassed as chairman of recreational leisure that no one had a chat with me about it.”

Councillor Kevin Pardy said: “I’m not going to stand here and criticise our town clerk, she does an excellent job.

“This is an unfortunate situation we find ourselves in and unfortunately it’s going to have to remain as it is this year and make sure that this never happens again.”

Councillor Alan Mosley said: “I know of two events taking place in the Quarry at the same time and both having good attendance, but time will tell.”

Mayor Ioan Jones said the “general consensus” was for the two events to continue this year.