AN EVENTS area has been churned up and left looking like a ploughed field after bad weather at the weekend made it difficult for a travelling circus to get off the site.
The Grange Lane events area near Cundy Cross is owned by the council and was hired by Planet Circus from last Tuesday until Sunday.
The Chronicle was contacted by locals this week to say the field is a ‘mud bath’ after the circus and its fleet of vehicles left the site on Sunday evening.
A dog walker, who did not want to be named, said: “They were leaving as I came down and were dragging articulated lorries off the field with tow trucks and JCBs.
“It’s decimated it. It looks like it has been ploughed over.
“It’s rutted in and in big parts they go past your knees.”
The circus’s producer, Mark Whitney, said the wintry conditions - particularly the snow on Saturday - had made the ground soft which caused problems getting its heavy duty wagons off the site.
He told the Chronicle Planet Circus in the process of sorting out the site and is working with the council to make sure the field is reinstated.
“We left on Sunday and we had conversations with the council from Monday regarding it,” said Mr Whitney.
“We have gone to that site for years and years and never left a problem there.
“I spoke to a local landscaping company yesterday (Tuesday) and we always pay a bond to cover any costs as well.
“It is something we are dealing with and take seriously and we do not want to go to a place and leave it in a bad way.
“Unfortunately when we do have bad weather it does cause a lot of problems for us with the show.
“We take everything seriously and will reinstate the field and are in the process of dealing with that.”
Coun Ken Richardson reported the issue to the council following complaints from the public.
He said recent bad weather likely had a part to play in why the field was left in such a mess.
“The ground has never dried out and as they have tried to get off it’s just churned it all up.
“It’s in a bad way.
“I got a phone call from a guy asking me to go and look at it saying it looked like a ploughed field.
“When people come and hire it they leave a bond and that should be used to restore it now.
“The parks department will go down and fill all the ruts in.”
A council spokeswoman said: “We always take a bond from those using our fields, in this case we are working with the circus on the renovation works required. Due to the adverse weather its caused more issues then we would normally have.
“The circus always comes to Barnsley around this time of year and we have previously had no issues.”
