Support for music event at stormy Long Sutton Parish Council meeting

Long Sutton Parish Council is backing this year’s Music in the Park after it was accused of not doing enough for the town.

Tempers ran high at the council’s annual parish meeting where one resident claimed that councillors had “taking the heart out of the volunteers” in Long Sutton.

There are too many decisions made by this parish council that reflect the personal feelings of officers, not the feelings of the electorate

Criticism over the council’s role in the “fiasco” of a planned Queen’s 90th Birthday fireworks celebration which had to be cancelled in April and complaints over last year’s Christmas Fayre were the main issues argue over.

Duriing the meeting at Long Sutton Baptist Church last Thursday, ex-parish councillor Roberta Ashton said: “There are too many decisions made by this parish council that reflect the personal feelings of officers, not the feelings of the electorate.

“The Christmas Fayre showed that the parish council does not have the skuills to oversee big events in (Long Sutton) and they were partly responsible for the fiasco of the non-event for the Queen’s 90th Birthday.”

In their defence, council members argued that they had to comply with health and safety conditions set by the police, Lincolnshire County Council and the county’s Event Safety Partnership.

But parish councillors gave their support to Music in the Park, organised by EELS (Events and Entertainment in Long Sutton) and due to be held at the town’s Winfrey Park on Sunday, August 28, provided the “necessary paperwork is in place”.

Coun John Clarey said: “This council has backed EELS more than any other organisation in the town, but everything has changed and we can’t do anything without the necessary paperwork being in place.

“What’s in the past is in the past so let’s just move on.”

Music in the Park organiser and Long Sutton district councillor Jack Tyrrell, who took responsibility for the cancellation of the Queen’s 90th Birthday event planned for Long Sutton, said: “All I’m asking for is to let’s just put an end to all this rubbish.

“Let’s just move on and get on because I’m a district councillor, you’re parish councillors and we should do what we can for this town and nothing else.”

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