Statement from the Rotary club Chairman
"I was very sorry to announce that for the first time in 29 years, I had to make one of the hardest decisions in my life, and cancel the 2012 Uxbridge Charity Autoshow.
Despite the recent poor weather, when we commenced working on the Show site last Tuesday we found the ground to be in fairly good condition, and it improved over the next two days. However, after the heavy rain on Thursday night the ground conditions became gradually worse. As a result we brought in tracking and took other measures that we thought would enable the Show to go ahead. But after more heavy rain on Friday night and Saturday morning a safety check undertaken at 2pm resulted in our decision to cancel the Show on the grounds of health and safety.
I want to give my heartfelt apologies to everyone who was affected by this decision and I wish to extend this to everyone who actually made the trip only to find out that the Show was cancelled. We did try to notify as many as possible of the decision.
The Autoshow is organised by the Company as a non profit making event whose proceeds are donated to charity. It is managed entirely by a group of volunteers who have given up hundreds of hours of their own time (both this and in the previous 28 years) and they are all completely devastated.
The Company is now in an extremely difficult financial position having suppliers’ invoices to pay but with little income from the Show. We are also aware many people have paid for advance tickets, Show sites etc. We will be reviewing the entire position as soon as we can and ask you to bear with us. If you wish to seek a refund please notify us through the website.
A plea - we have raised almost £500,000 for charity in our time and this is a real disaster for us so if any of you would be prepared to forego a claim and treat it as a donation we would be so grateful.
I would like to thank everyone for their support through phone, email and Facebook, but unfortunately the Show cannot be rescheduled this year.
A decision on staging a Charity Autoshow in 2013 will be made later this year once we have dealt with the outcome of this year.
Alan Morris
Chair of the Rotary Club of Uxbridge Autoshow Limited
16th July 2012"
Last edited by STeve; 16-07-2012 at 08:57 PM.