A mini Lapland complete with a real ice rink and reindeers is being created on a South Staffordshire field normally used for car boot sales.
But the 18-day festival planned for Essington has sparked controversy about traffic clogging up the small village, with organisers expecting 5,000 carloads of visitors a day. Marquees have already started to go up at the site off Bognop Road ready for its transformation, despite council chiefs only being told about it days ago.
It is due to start on Saturday and will run until Christmas Eve and will also feature huskies, life-size Christmas characters skating on ice, fairground rides, jugglers, fake snow and Santa Claus.
The event is being staged by Lapland West Midlands and tickets cost £25.
Councillor David Clifft, chairman of Essington Parish Council, said it would be the biggest-ever event to be held in the village.
He said: “Residents are bracing themselves for this event. Essington is a small rural village and an event of this scale and over along period of time has never been held here before.
“There are concerns about the large numbers of people and the traffic this event will attract and how our country lane will cope.”
Councillor Clifft said that the parish council had only been given notice just days ago of the festival.
He added: “We don’t want to spoil anyone’s enjoyment over the Christmas period, but to inform us of this kind of event on this scale only days ago has given us no time to talk with the organisers of the event to put plans in place to lessen the impact on the village.”
The field has a licence to run car boot sales.
If the parish council ordered the festival be scrapped and the organisers successfully appealed, Councillor Clifft said it would have to pay out thousands of pounds to compensate for loss of earnings.
No-one from Lapland West Midlands was available for comment today.
16 Comments
Nightmare!
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£25 a time to get in!!!
They are worried about thousands attending - in your dreams
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All I shall say is if its anything like the one I’ve just read about in the New Forest, don’t waste your money! Leave Essington alone!
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Sounds fantastic.
My wife, 2 kids and myself will be only too pleased to pay £100 to see some huskies standing in fake snow in a sodden car boot field.
What Credit Crunch !?!
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Haven’t Stafford and Cannock already had enough spent on then? It’s almost as though the Black Country is seen as an after-thought. And £25 is too much, in my opinion..in fact I’d go so far as to say ‘no way on earth’. I’d much rather spend it on a real holiday.
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Can this region get ANYTHIN right? Oh, I forgot didn’t I..seems we don’t do culture very well, so hey - why not milk them dry.
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I’ve just read about this on another news site, they have had hundreds of complaints down south where the same organisers have recreated Lapland - it’s rubbish and a waste of money according to most of the people that visited at the weekend. Complaints of animal abuse and loads of people wanting refunds. I won’t be going to Essington especially at £25 a ticket you can walk over Cannock Chase for free and see some fantastic wildlife and beautiful scenery.
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£25 each - Essington, car boot field SOLD. What a great idea suprised it aint been done already.
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DONT GO lots of people down here have paid an average of £100 and bought their kids home in tears.when they complained saying it was a disgraceful rip off and asked for their money back they were told to go to a small claims court.it’s been on the local radio all day,in the local paper and on the bbc local news.TELL EVERYONE TO BOYCOTT IT.
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It seems the councillors concerned should have done their homework before allowing this to take place. As other people have commented the version created down south looks to be dreadful. Far better to spend your money visiting the lovely German Market in Birmingham or playing in ‘real’ snow at Tamworth’s Snowdome!
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yet another christmas rip off. most kids just want a friendly word from santa, a nice quality gift and a good grotto and I have not been able to find that since Bradshaw’s closed, where are you now?, and why are’nt the lights back in leonard road s’bridge, make christmas simple then we can all afford to enjoy it.
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Yeah, like the person above, I highly recommend you google Lapland New Forest and view all the complaints about what a rip-off and con it has been. I can’t comment on if the one coming to the Midlands will be the same, but I would try and find out before you hand over any money.
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I am a resident and live off the road this is planned in. I have not been asked my opinion and am horrified that this may happen in the village. This village can’t cope with the amount of traffic it already gets. There are hundreds of places to host such events how about one with main roads and car parks. I dread the lead up to xmas if this goes ahead. Again thanks for having no thought for the residents!
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hi think ill save my money sounded gr8 till i saw ticket price and to carol gardenlands bridgnorth rd and hollybush nurseries -not sure where it is both have wonderful santas hope this helps
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I think it’s a shame that residents will have to pay the ultimate price for this - noise & disruption (incidently I live in Cannock so not a personal gripe). Lapland is only really Lapland if you have got on a plane and headed towards the north pole - not headed north on the M6. We’re off to the real Lapland next Christmas so will be giving a muddy field, fake snow etc a miss.
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New Forest web page -
West Midlands web page -
Yes - it’s almost identical ! Notice that in one place the West
Midlands site still has “lapland new forest” in it!
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