ONE of the biggest free events in East Surrey will not go ahead this year as countryside projects across the county face organisational cuts.
The popular Banstead Countryside Day has been running for 15 years, attracting crowds of up to 8,000 people in a celebration of rural pursuits, skills and crafts.
But this September's extravaganza off Holly Lane has been cancelled.
The Mirror understands it cannot go ahead due to uncertainty caused by a proposed merger affecting organising body the Downlands Project – an environmental group which has been running schemes across north-east Surrey in an area spanning Tadworth to Tatsfield for the past 25 years.
Core funder Surrey County Council plans to merge it with the Lower Mole Project and the Heathland Project, which covers the whole of west Surrey. Despite an expected reduction in staffing, the council claims the merger will not affect the work each scheme does.
Regular participants in the Downlands group's flagship countryside day event include the Diamond Riding Centre for Disabled Riders in Carshalton. Administrator Angela Goldie said: "We have been going for years and years. It's always a really well-attended event and people enjoy it.
"It's a shame it's not going ahead; it's a very simple event, not high tech, a nice countrified day where kids can get in a bit of mud."
Commenting on the cutbacks, Surrey County Council spokeswoman Lee Tobin said: "By merging three strands into one, we plan to save taxpayers £105,000 to go back into protecting and improving Surrey's countryside.
"These back-office savings would give better value for money without affecting our usual work on the ground to preserve England's most wooded county.
"These merger plans, which we're still consulting on, might affect two full-time posts, but we hope to move staff internally without needing to cut numbers."
It is possible the Banstead Countryside Day will return in future years.
The project is opening up Old Lodge Farm in Little Woodcote, near Carshalton, to the public on Sunday, June 8 from 11am to 3pm to link in with the annual national Open Farm Sunday campaign.
