A councillor says the authority didn’t know when planning permission would be granted for the Castle Sports Complex revamp after questions were raised why events including Spalding Flower Parade could not be held there.
South Holland District Council has always maintained it and the Spalding Festival could not be held at its facilities this year due to the work.
Last year the flower parade’s previous organiser Steve Timewell cancelled the 2025 event as a result, before a committee of volunteers held it at Springfields earlier this month.
After Coun Gary Taylor, the portfolio holder for community development and the delivery of the South Holland Health Hub, told a meeting of the authority last week work was due to commence in September, Coun James Le Sage asked why events had been moved.
“With that deadline of September both of those events could have been run in the town centre where they should have been held,” he said.
Coun Taylor said that some surveying and trench work had already been carried out.
“Of course we didn’t know exactly when planning permission would be received,” he answered. “Some of those works have taken place and some of the land is uneven as a result.
“I do hope that we can look at alternative venue in the town centre where we can host these events but we do need to draw more people to the town centre and we need to work on that in the future.”
He went on to praise the parade as ‘very successful’.
