Bourne mayor 'extremely disappointed' over South Kesteven District Council's decision not to fund CiCLE Festival

The mayor of Bourne has said the town council is “extremely disappointed” that funding is not available for a popular cycle festival.

Coun Colin Pattison was talking after South Kesteven District Council (SKDC) revealed it was unable to offer financial support to the Bourne CiCLE Festival for 2021.

This year’s event had already been scrapped.

Despite going £25,000 over its £75,000 budget, the festival proved a huge hit in 2019 and was said to provide a significant economic boost to the area.

Coun Pattison said SKDC was often quick to overlook Bourne in favour of Stamford, Grantham and Market Deeping.

“There are four market towns in this area and it does seem that Bourne is always the one to lose out,” he said. “I doubt the same will happen to the Georgian Festival and Gravity Fields.

“We at the town council are extremely disappointed and will be pushing SKDC to look at resurrecting Bourne CiCLE Festival as soon as they can.”

He added: “I also feel very sorry for Brian Moran [race director in 2019] who has put so much effort into the festival.”

Mr Moran is still pushing for answers from SKDC over when and how it was decided that the Bourne event should not receive funding.

He said previously: “I’m disappointed but it’s nothing that wasn’t expected.

“The way things are going I can’t see any event happening until at least 2022 now, and that’s if it happens at all.”

Coun Rosemary Trollope-Bellew (Con, Casewick), cabinet member for culture and visitor economy at SKDC said in a letter to Mr Moran that funding the festival would represent a “huge risk to the council as the prime stakeholder”.

“Given the current economic pressures on this council, the council is unable to financially support the cycling festival,” she wrote.

“The 2019 pilot event incurred costs beyond its budget, and the council is unable to see how the costs can be reduced to substantiate your proposal. The pilot event in 2019 benefited from significant sponsorship, which cannot be guaranteed in the current circumstances, and this is a key consideration in the council’s decision to not proceed with its financial support for the event.”

But she said the authority could offer “some support”, should Mr Moran and his associates take on all the risk of running the festival.

Bourne CiCLE Festival is organised through SKDC and its economic growth and regeneration company InvestSK.