...2011 Display Cancelled
Thu 3rd Nov 2011 - 22.00
Upchurch Scout Group regrets
to announce that this year's Upchurch Family Fireworks Display has been
cancelled. The site field is already very wet and with heavy persistent rain
forecast between Thursday night and Saturday, the conditions in the field,
particularly in the car parks would make it difficult to enter and exit the
field safely. The very wet ground poses a potential safety issue in terms of
access for emergency vehicles and a logistics issue for our deliveries.
Those that came last year will recall the problems to traffic flow that the wet
field caused. This year the field is already as wet and it is highly unlikely to
dry out in time even if the weather did clear on Saturday as some are
forecasting.
In 2008 we suffered losses
for the first time in our history due to the poor weather. As a charity we could
not justify risking the outlay required for the 2009 display. We came back in
2010 with an agreed set of procedures to minimise the risk to the group and its
funds. During an emergency committee meeting tonight, it was decided, based on
those procedures and the potential safety risk, to cancel the 2011 display and
minimise the potential losses to the group by taking an early decision.
Upchurch Scout Group would
like to apologise to our customers, stall holders and sponsors for any
inconvenience caused. A vast amount of people give up their time to make this
happen and because of the amount of volunteer work involved, it is not possible
to reschedule the event.
It’s a very sad decision for
those of us who have spent months working on the display but we hope you
understand that we have a duty to ensure the safety of the display and also to
protect the funding of the group.
We hope you will come back
and support us again in the future. We’d be pleased to hear any comments you
have on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/upchurchfireworks
A number of people are
questioning our decision to cancel. Firing fireworks in the rain is not an issue
and our firing team were still ready to go ahead. On Thursday evening the ground
in the field was already wet enough to question if the display should go ahead.
Although there were varying forecasts (some showing Saturday night clear) one
thing that appeared fairly certain was that significant rain would fall
between Thursday evening and Saturday evening. The arrival of that rain now
appears to be early to late morning on Saturday. Following the losses suffered
in 2008 we put measures in place to protect our funds. By taking an early
decision to cancel we can minimise the losses to the group. Going ahead
would
have been like betting thousands of pounds of charity money with only a slim
chance of winning. We could not take that risk and despite the disappointment,
we hope you understand our decision.
ve
