Organisers of the North West Food Lovers Festival held at Tatton Park, Cheshire are ruing the Highways authority decision to close the M56 Motorway on the weekend of their event.

The highly successful event featuring over 120 exhibitors from across the North West has always been a hugely popular show attracting thousands of visitors from throughout the region.

Event organiser, Stephen Wundke, said: "It was extremely disappointing that the Highways Agency chose this weekend to close the M56. We were advised when we were planning the event that the closure would take place in the first two weekends of October and so we made our plans around that. For them, with little warning, to then close on the weekend of our event has cost us and our exhibitors just over £50,000 in lost revenues".

With pre-ticket sales up on 2009 levels, organisers expected to break the 12,500 visitor record set in the previous year, and after Friday's crowd showed a small increase before the road closure, it was hoped that the damage would be minimal. However, with some hardy customers experiencing over one hour delays on the Saturday, many just turned around and went home.

Wundke reported crowd numbers down by 1,100 on the same day last year and with numbers expected to be up on 2009, that is more like a 1,400 loss in numbers. In ticket money and car parking alone that is nearly £10,000 in lost revenue and with an average spend £38 per person at the event, the overall figure is more like £50,000. To highlight this, inexplicably the Highways agency opened the M56 on Sunday and crowd numbers returned to 2009 levels.

An exhibitor, Paul Wilcox of Cartoon Creations added "It was eerie on the Saturday, we were all ready for a really good day and there was just no zing to it. Fortunately things returned to normal on Sunday and we just about covered our costs for the weekend - It was a great shame as the organisers have done well to grow this event in the last two years"

Organisers will be looking to see if they can re-coup some of their losses from Highways UK to ensure the show continues in 2011.