The Southend Autumn Carp Show due to be held at Southend in Essex next month has been cancelled.

 Following a last-minute change of agreement by the local council the organisers of the show found themselves with less than half the original amount of parking for the show, leading them no other choice but to cancel the event.

“It has always been in our agreement with the venue that we had exclusive use of the overspill parking area for our show as well as shared use of the rest of the car parking,” said Lee Apps of Redwood Events, organisers of the show.

“On a meeting on Monday with the Council and the venue (the venue lease the site from the council), the council revoked this and effectively reduced our onsite parking by over half.

“Tuesday was spent looking at the practicalities of courtesy busing even more visitors from nearby car parks. This has always been in our armory but now forced with using multiple car parks across a congested busy weekend town, is simply not workable.

 “It’s a massive blow to us, with 10 months work and meetings all for nothing.”

The next big show for carpers is now the Carp Society’s Winter Show being held at Sandown Park, Surrey on November 26 and 27.