Covid concerns over hundreds of people converging on village near Grantham this weekend
Concerns have been raised by a parish council ahead of a metal detecting event set to take place in Ancaster this weekend.
The event, run by Detecting for Veterans, has sold out all 230 tickets for its Ancaster Summer Rally starting today (Friday) and continuing until Sunday.
As the event is charitable, collecting money with raffles and tickets to raise money for two armed forces charities (The Veterans Charity and Talking2minds), it can go ahead under the latest government guidelines.
The guidelines state that: "Businesses and charities following COVID-19 Secure guidelines can host larger groups in total, provided that social interaction of those in attendance are limited to groups of six or less which do not mingle."
The Detecting for Veterans Facebook page confirmed that the rally would go ahead and that all government guidelines would be followed: "Ancaster weekend rally is a go , we will be covid secure and all government guidelines will be followed."
However, there is concern over possibility that the event may spread Covid-19 to the village of Ancaster.
David Sayer, chairman of the Ancaster, Sudbrook & West Willoughby Parish Council, said: “I suppose in some ways the fear is in the unknown. They say they’re Covid safe.
“Metal detecting itself I imagine is a fairly socially-distanced hobby, but they’re saying they’ve got stalls and they’ve got a bar and they’re all stopping overnight.
"Presumably, they’ll be going to the local shops and things like that and all I’m worried about is, is it covid safe for us?
“Although it’s not bad in our area, all of a sudden you’ve got 230 people from all parts of the country all heading into Ancaster and that’s our concern really.
“I don’t know exactly the location of where it’s going to be. It’s not as if they’re going to be in the centre of Ancaster or in the centre of one of the villages.
“It’s just our worry that they are coming from all parts of the country and could be bringing Covid to our area. At the moment we are relatively Covid-free in our village and we want to stay like that."
