Enfield Council apologised after accidentally sending offers of free tickets to residents of Ladysmith Road and Sketty Road

This year’s Enfield Pageant of Motoring and (inset) a notice apologising for the ticketing error (credit Malcolm Williams)

Confusion over free tickets for local residents to attend last weekend’s Enfield Pageant of Motoring have been blamed on “human error”.

Enfield Council apologised after accidentally sending offers of free tickets to residents of Ladysmith Road and Sketty Road, who live adjacent to Town Playing Fields where the annual exhibition of classic cars and family entertainment takes place.

The event is organised by Whitewebbs Museum of Transport and the original offer of free tickets was sent by the council on the museum’s headed paper, adding to the confusion.

But the council then sent another letter three days later – this time on its own headed paper – apologising for the error and informing residents they would still need to pay to enter the event.

Malcolm Williams was one of the residents who received the letters. He told the Dispatch: “It should have only gone out to a few people living in Donkey Lane as a little thank you but someone decided to send it out to everyone on Ladysmith and Sketty [roads] and then someone worked out it would cost £15,000 to honour it – the tickets are £12.50 each.

“I just think it was ridiculous. They should have honoured it anyway, it would have been better to have more people there.”

Despite the confusion, Malcolm said he had enjoyed the event.

Another Malcolm, surname Bates, is a volunteer at The Whitewebbs Museum of Transport and helps run the pageant. He said there were “a couple of weird things” around tickets this year which had caused problems, including a separate issue with someone giving out fake wristbands to gain entry.

But he added: “The tickets issue was resolved amicably, quite how it happened I don’t know. Other than that, I’d say it went reasonably well, and the attendance was good again.

“The museum is a registered charity and the society puts on the pageant as a fundraiser and for the benefit of local people.

“It is run by volunteers and some of my colleagues were working all last week to get things set up. It is very much a local community event and something families want to go to. There is something for everyone.”

A council spokesperson said: “Enfield Council sent out a letter on behalf of The Whitewebbs Museum of Transport regarding the Enfield Pageant of Motoring, which took place on 24th-25th May.

“This was sent out in error and free passes to the show were not available for this activity.

“Once the error became apparent, we took immediate action to contact all households who had received the letter. We apologise for this error and any inconvenience caused.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.