Work starts on upgrading Devon County Show car parks

A major upgrade to the car parks at the Devon County Show is under way, following the situation at this year’s show, when heavy rain made the car parks unusable, so forcing the cancellation of the third day.

The work is being led and co-ordinated by the Devon County Agricultural Association and supported by the Environment Agency, Devon County Council, South West Highways and Mole Valley Farmers.

Geological surveys, subsoiling, infilling, levelling, harrowing and seeding have been carried out and the ground is already looking much better.

Show Secretary, Ollie Allen said: “Our car parks became unusable when heavy, overnight rain fell in Show week following the wettest winter on record. We are doing all we can to make the grass fields, which we use to park up to 20,000 cars, better able to cope.  

“We are an agricultural show which uses neighbouring fields as car parks and it would not be sensible, affordable or environmentally friendly to convert all areas into hard surfaced car parks.”

Tom Hammett, Chief Steward of Car Parks and Gates, said the work has been a real team effort: “We’ve used a sub-soiler to break-up the compacted ‘pan’ under the grass and additional tracks and entrance splays are being constructed to assist with traffic flow.

“We’ve consulted soil scientists and other experts to ensure we’re carrying out the best remedial works possible to make the land better able to withstand the rain.”

Contractors are on site creating the new tracks ways and reseeding about eight acres of grass in a programme of works which covers 30 acres and will include the Horse Vehicle Park.

Tom added: “These works could not be done at a better time as the weather has been ideal.  We’ve been able to make tremendous progress without any interruptions and the ground will be in a much better state come next year’s Show.” 

The Show has been granted a tipping licence and is importing tonnes of crushed concrete and planings from the County Council and South West Highways for the tracks. Mole Valley Farmers has supplied grass seed from Barenbrug and Germinal Seeds. 

Ollie Allen added: “Since May, the Show has been in discussions with Exeter City Council to explore Park and Ride but there is insufficient capacity.

“Although the Show suffered a huge financial loss because of cancellation, major capital expenditure is being concentrated to make sure our car parks are capable of dealing with the huge capacity of vehicles we anticipate each year, even when the ‘heavens open’.”

Next year’s Devon County Show will be held on May 21-23.