WEST Somerset’s MP has criticised Minehead Town Council for approving this week’s five-day funfair at a time when Covid-19 cases are increasing. But yesterday (Thursday) councillors were split on whether the fair should have gone ahead.

Some councillors challenged Ian Liddell-Grainger to visit the fair to see for himself how efficient the health and safety precautions were. But others had pressed for an emergency meeting to decide whether to cancel the event at the last minute.

Mr Liddell-Grainger claimed that Leigh Danter and Son’s funfair, which is running until Sunday on part of Alcombe Common, close to the seafront, “sends entirely the wrong signals at a time when biosecurity should be universally reinforced.”

He said he had been deluged with complaints from constituents who say the fair represents an unacceptable health risk at a time when Covid-19 cases are on the increase despite relaxed restrictions which had allowed funfairs to restart.

After the town council issued a statement this week saying that the fair could go ahead so long as all health rules and precautions were observed, several councillors, including Terry Venner and Danielle Prosser, said that health risks had increased since that decision was made in August and the event should be cancelled.

Cllr Venner told the Free Press that on Monday he had asked for a Zoom meeting the following day to make a final decision, but this had not gone ahead.

He said: “I am sure the fair operators are conforming to all the regulations but I think the risk to the people of Minehead is unacceptable and we must all do what we can to control the spread of this deadly virus.

“I appreciate it would have been late in the day to change things, but I believe that in the present circumstances it was unwise to support and promote a funfair in Minehead.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “I do not see any way in which social distancing can be made to work at a funfair. I know many people, particularly older members of the community, will not even contemplate visiting the fair.

“But it will certainly be an attraction for younger people – with the attendant risk that they may pick up the virus and transmit it to their older relatives.

“I do not think this decision was well thought through. I don’t normally make it my business to involve myself in the affairs of the town council, but from the contents of my mailbox it is clear that a great many local people think the fair would expose the community to unnecessary danger and that it threatens to undermine the efforts so many have made to ensure West Somerset remains a low-risk virus area.”

But town councillor Toni Bloomfield who, with the mayor Cllr Paul Bolton, helped bring the fair back to Minehead last year after a 20-year absence, issued a challenge to Mr Liddell-Grainger to visit the fair and see for himself the extensive health and safety precautions that were in place.

“Why has Minehead has been singled out by Mr Liddell-Grainger when he has made no objection to other fairs being held in his constituency, including Bridgwater and Minehead’s Butlin’s, where there are 3,000,people compared with the Minehead fair’s limit of 250?” Cllr Bloomfield asked.

For the full report and Ian Liddell-Grainger’s opinion column see today’s Free Press.