Winter Wonderland organisers will pay for repairs to Bedford Park

Repairs to Bedford Park following the Winter Wonderland event will be paid for by the organisers, a meeting heard.

During Thursday’s Environment and Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee (January 18) councillor Charles Royden (Lib Dem, Brickhill) asked how much the event organisers put towards the cost of the remedial works.

“Can we have some idea of how the costings work,” he asked. “Does it include time, or is it time and materials? Can you give us an idea of how long it’ll take for the park to be restored to its former state?”

Paul Pace, chief officer (environment), said the organisers had provided a £1,000 bond to reinstate the grassed area.

“That does include materials and resources to undertake that work,” he said. “I’m confident that will be enough to actually reinstate that area of land.

“Should we feel that it’s going to be more than that, then we are able to go back to the promoter and ask for a further contribution. Obviously, if it’s under that value we do return any short fall back to the promoter.”

Mr Pace said it was “tricky” to predict when the work will be completed due to the wet weather, adding that it rained for 21 of the 40 days the event was open.

“We are now really in the hands of the weather to see how quickly we can get on the site to start some reinstatement work,” he said.

“What we can’t do is go on there and cause more of an impact, so we do need to be sensible about how we do that. We’ll be there as soon as we possibly can.”