Pictures show scale of Moor Park clear up operation after BBC Radio 2 In The Park

Moor Park turned into a swamp during the Sunday of BBC Radio 2 In The Park Pic: Blog Preston

The scale of the challenge facing the parks team in Moor Park can be shown from above.

Pictures passed to Blog Preston show the current state of the grade-II listed park in the wake of the BBC Radio 2 In The Park festival last weekend.

A huge take-down job is in process to dismantle all the staging and festival set up – which was delayed due to the torrential downpours last Sunday.

Blog Preston understands many food traders were unable to move their stalls and trucks until Wednesday due to the quagmire of mud.

Two weeks has been allocated by Preston City Council and festival organisers for to complete the packing away of the festival site.

Repair work on the grounds has already begun with the city’s parks team already hard at work.

Cabinet member for environment and community safety, councillor Freddie Bailey, told Blog Preston: “It was an incredibly wet day yesterday as the people of Preston can vouch for, but I believe not as wet as the south of the country! Restoration of the park has started and our parks team, comprising talented gardeners, will be working very closely with the event organisers over the coming days and weeks.

Cabinet member for environment and community safety, councillor Freddie Bailey, said earlier this week: “The park will make a full recovery, it’s not the first time it’s seen heavy rainfall and lots of muddy feet as our ’92 Guild celebrations were a complete wash out and it survived.

“The park will be fully assessed as the event is derigged which is being managed by the event organisers, as it would be for any large-scale event. Some elements may be slightly delayed, but this is not out of the ordinary for an event of this scale. The park may be cordoned off temporarily into sections throughout the reinstatement process.

“The aim of both the City Council and BBC is to limit any damage to the park as much as possible and ensure that the duration of any disruption to regular park users after the event is as limited as possible. This is a contractual arrangement between the Council and the BBC.”

More than 70,000 music fans attended the festival over the course of three days in the largest event in the city since the 2012 Guild celebrations.

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