THE annual Emergency Services Show has been cancelled this year after its usual venue on Hullavington Airfield was put in doubt.

Since its inception in 2005, the show has been held at the airfield situated between Malmesbury and Chippenham through a license agreement with the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

But a decision to sell the airfield in January meant there was no guarantee it could be used for the show, which was due to be held in September.

A spokesperson for the Emergency Services Show trustees said: “In January, the MoD announced that the airfield was to be put up for sale with immediate effect as part of a wide ranging disposal of land.

“Since that time, the trustees and our supporters – in particular, the North Wiltshire MP James Gray – have endeavoured to either secure agreement to use Hullavington one last time, or move to a new location.

“Despite many encouraging conversations, we have not been able to get sufficient written assurances of a site being available on our advertised date in September.

“As such, we are not prepared to risk spending money on show planning and infrastructure while the risk remains that we would still have to cancel.

“Although we are obviously very disappointed not to be holding a show this year, the extra time does now allow us to focus on finding an appropriate new location for September 2017, and we hope to be able to make an announcement about this very soon.”

For updates, visit www.facebook.com/EmergencyServicesShow