BOLTON Show and Westhoughton Shows both suffered huge financial losses after wet weather turned them into a washout.

Accounts published this week reveal that last summer's Bolton Show recorded a £27,726 deficit and Westhoughton £8,063.

The Bolton Show at Leverhulme Park had to be abandoned on the Sunday because leisure chiefs decided that it was unsafe to continue with the show.

The event was held on the weekend of August 22 and 23.

But a report presented to leisure services committee councillors said that the weather was "the worst experienced in the history of the show." On the Friday night before it opened, some traders were unable to gain access to the park because of the poor ground conditions. The accounts show that while income was down, expenditure was up to cope with the weather conditions.

Costs were higher because of a need to hire wagons to help with the clean-up operation and to pull stuck vehicles out of the mud.

The report concludes: "The increased deficit for the Bolton Show can, in the main, be attributed to the atrocious weather conditions of the weekend period.

"While every effort was made to mitigate the impact, it proved necessary to respond quickly on the day."

It was the same story at the Westhoughton Show on June 13 and 14.

Attendances were 465 on the Saturday and 2,330 on the Sunday, compared with figures of 1,567 and 3,527 the year before.

But Cllr Gerry Riley, chairman of Bolton's leisure services committee, vowed that both shows will go on this year.

He said: "The weather was a disaster and we will have to make up the deficit from other areas of our budget.

"But Bolton Show is one of the top ten events of its kind in the country and is usually enjoyed by thousands of people. We wouldn't like last year's experience to diminish it in any way."

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