ORGANISERS of the Ulverston Lantern Festival took a dim view of Ford Park team's "lack of judgement" when planning for a major event.

For many years the largest park in Ulverston has served as the finishing point for the festival.

However this year the decision was made to relocate the festival's firework finish to the town centre after disagreements over the public's access to the park.

Gavin Knott, treasurer of the lantern festival committee, said: "In 2016 the festival showed there were problems with the gate [at Ford Park] in regards to it not being big enough for the volume of people coming in.

"We had a lot of issues getting people in and out, and quite a lot of abuse vented at ourselves.

"We took a review and looked at what we should do. Ford Park didn't think they needed to improve the gate facilities, they suggested using the gate at the side and rear of the park."

There had been two large gates at the front of the park. However, one was lost after land was sold to a housing developer.

Mr Knott continued: "I think it's a lack of judgement on their part in the long term."

Online, locals criticised the park complaining about the bottlenecks caused last year at the front entrance.

Emily Bispham, of Dalton, said: "I felt it wasn't well thought out and it didn't cater for the amount of people present. I think tomorrow's (Saturday) idea is great and will bring much more business into the town centre."

David Heffernan, trustee of Ford Park Community Group, responded saying: "The decision was not taken by us, it was taken by the lantern committee.

"I respect their decision, they had to take a decision they thought was right, I thought they could have done it a different way, but it would have required more marshalling from their side."

Commenting on the loss of a second gate due to the housing development, Mr Heffernan said: "The sale of the land served the park; without that we would not have paid off our debt and the park would not be in the place it is in today."

Mr Heffernan said renewed efforts are being made to build new entrances to the park

Both sides have said they would see the festival return to the park, if a safe solution to enter and exit the park could be found.

Mr Heffernan said: "We totally want the park to be viable for events, if the committee choose."

Mr Knott added: "The long-term foresight wasn't there, but to blame them is a bit strong. We don't want to fall out with them, we'd like to go back to the park."

Read more about the Lantern Festival:

Learn about the new location for this year's fireworks finale

Several roads will be closed for the festival - make sure you know which ones

See our nostalgia pictures from festivals gone by