IT is with a “heavy heart”, said Truro’s town clerk, that Truro City Council has decided to cancel this year’s Bonfire Night fireworks event – one of the most popular in Cornwall. It comes two weeks after Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service announced it had cancelled its display in Falmouth.

It was announced by the council earlier this month that it was considering moving the event to the cattle market on Newquay Road. Its traditional site at Tremorvah playing field was deemed unsafe due to vehicle ‘chaos’ and police concerns last year.

However, town clerk David Rodda told a meeting of the council’s finance and general purposes committee on Monday (October 20) that this year’s event would have to be cancelled as it has got “too big” for the council to manage on its own. Up to 4,000 people attended 2024’s event, and there were concerns that number would increase due to the cancellation of the Falmouth display.

“The event has been growing year on year and it shifted from a community event we can handle ourselves to something much, much bigger,” said Mr Rodda.

“One other thing which unfortunately we do now have to consider more than ever before is hostile vehicle movements.” Mr Rodda said that wasn’t just possible terrorism incidents, but events such as that seen in Liverpool earlier this year when a car ploughed into a crowd, injuring over 100 people.

He added that the scale of the event precluded running it with council staff and volunteers. “The only way we could do it is to bring in paid crowd management and traffic control, but it’s a charity event so if we pay people, the amount of money we raise for charities is going to diminish.”

He added: “As town clerk I’m not prepared to run an event that I’m not 100 per cent confident we can mitigate against the risks. This year’s event will be cancelled, and we’ll consider if we can bring it back in 2026 at a venue where we are confident we can control vehicle and pedestrian movements. Believe me, this hasn’t been an easy choice.”

The committee heard that the health and safety responsibilities for Truro City Council as organiser have grown immeasurably. It consulted with the Safety Advisory Group - made up of Cornwall Council’s highways department, police, ambulance and other bodies – and considered alternative locations, but the time needed to apply for road closures meant it was not possible to find another venue for next month’s event.

Cllr Karlene Stokes said: “This is a really big disappointment for Truro, because this was a big day. The sad thing is, Truro City Council isn’t seen as doing lots. This is one of the things it’s seen as doing, and now we’re not doing that.”

Cllr Rod Pascoe asked: “Why are we now in October saying there were too many people last year for this year to go ahead? This should have been discussed well in advance.” He suggested setting up a committee to organise bringing the event back in 2026 “so it doesn’t die a death next year”. The committee agreed.