THORNBURY’S popular food fairs have been cancelled permanently due to a lack of parking in the town.

The Thornbury Food Fairs, quarterly events run by the town’s Chamber of Commerce, have been visited by thousands of people since they started eight years ago, but due to the imminent closure of main car park used by the sellers, they have been unable to find a way to continue.

Stall holders, who had previously used the car park in the former South Gloucestershire Council offices on Castle Street, would have to set up elsewhere with the site now sold and set for demolition to make way for the new Churchill retirement complex.

“It has been a tough decision,” said Penny Skinner, one of the food fair organisers from the Thornbury Chamber.

“I have notified the stallholders, and frankly they have been brilliant about the whole thing.”

She added: “One solution we could have taken was to have all the stallholder park up in the long stay car park in Rock Street, but that would be a massive inconvenience to the townspeople as they themselves would have nowhere to park.

“The whole point of the food fairs was to bring people into Thornbury, to use the cafes and shops after visiting the stalls, but if there is no possibility of parking then no one will be able to come, let alone want to.”

It has become more difficult in recent years to get stallholders to commit, given other fairs in the region sometimes run weekly on a weekly basis, with numbers dwindling on occasion from more than 40 stalls to less than 30.

Mrs Skinner said: “If they are going to get a weekly slot at a different event, then they are always going to take it!

“But we know our regular stallholders have become very popular and had their usual customers at the fairs, so if anyone wishes to contact them, they can do so directly through me.”

Mrs Skinner made it clear, however, that while the food fairs would come to a close, she hoped that something would replace them in the coming months.

“We have our thinking hats on about coming up with a new idea, but that could take time.

“It is important to us that the Chamber of Commerce remains one of the bodies leading the charge in improving Thornbury, rather than simply following.

To contact the stallholders, email Penny Skinner on penny@bondsofthornbury.co.uk