Yet more from Express & Star! Looks like the previous article I quoted was an older one, it is now open for roaring trade! (And roaring bonfires of vengence, I assume.)
Does this look like Lapland?(Picture cannot be posted
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This is the muddy field where a controversial Christmas festival is due to start tomorrow.
Organisers insist it will go ahead despite council threats of legal action which has left one senior councillor asking today: “Does this look like Lapland to you?”
Customers who have paid £25 in advance via a website will be shocked to see a dozen marquees, some Christmas trees and a handful of portable toilets on the Essington site near Wolverhampton, just 24 hours before the event gets under way.
Today co-organiser Jimmy James insisted he had council permission – a claim vehemently denied by South Staffordshire Council. The event opens at midday tomorrow on a field normally used for car boot sales off Bognop Road and runs until Christmas Eve.
Promoters Lapland West Midlands are promising real snow every hour, reindeers and huskies, stilt-walkers, an ice rink, bungee trampolining, a climbing wall, a Formula 1-style racetrack and an “authentic” Father Christmas.
Today a message on the company’s website states they have nothing to do with Dorset’s Lapland New Forest, which was shut down this week after 2,000 complaints to trading standards. It adds: “We have been inspected by the local authorities and given the go ahead to open this Saturday. We look forward to seeing you.”
But, speaking outside the site today where workmen were busy laying woodchip paths, Essington Parish Council chairman David Clifft said it was “not the winter wonderland” that was being promoted.
“I think people will be very disappointed,” he said. “Does it look like Lapland to you? It doesn’t to me. In fact the only way it would look like Lapland was if there was four feet of snow overnight in Essington.”
Councillor Clifft said officials would be visiting the site tomorrow with a view to shutting it down should any health and safety breaches be discovered. “Of course they need a licence,” he added. “This does not have the blessing of the authorities.
“It is a criminal offence to continue tomorrow and they face a £25,000 fine if this goes to court.”
Co-organiser Mr James, who today tried to get the Express & Star to sign an agreement promising not to take pictures in advance, vowed it was not a rip-off.
“You are welcome to come back tomorrow when everything will be up and running,” he said. “All the cartoon characters, reindeer, rides, lighting, will be in place on time.
“The council have approved everything. As long as everything goes ahead as advertised, as long as we give the public everything that we have said they are going to get, we are fine.
“This is going to be a proper event for children and adults, the £25 covers everything.”
Later, Gordon Brown in a crowd pleasing move announced that ticket holders could solve their problems WITH FIRE.