A TOWN council has voted to stop a centuries-old tradition of galloping horses bareback down the High Street as part of an annual fair – citing stringent health and safety rules.

Yarm Fair, which takes place next month, usually involves a tradition called the ‘flashings’ which involves racing and trotting horses up and down the main street.

This dates back to the time when Yarm Fair was a livestock trading event.

But Jason Hadlow, of Yarm Town Council, said the decision was made in the wake of the cancellation of the town’s Gala event at the last minute in the summer after Stockton’s Independent Safety Advisory Group (ISAG) ruled health and safety plans had “significant gaps and weaknesses”. The town council cancelled the event after Stockton Council relayed ISAG’s safety concerns and said it could not permit an event to go ahead on public land with ‘inadequate’ safety plans.

Mr Hadlow said: “Since the cancellation of the Gala we feel health and safety has gone from being a grey area and making something as safe as possible, to it being black or white, it’s either safe, or it’s not.

“We used an event plan for the Gala that had been used for several years and yet suddenly it was deemed not to be sufficient.

“If an event which involved children dancing on a stage and some people selling a few spider plants at stalls on the High Street was not safe enough, then how can riding horses at speed down the street with crowds of people around be considered in any way safe? How can an adequate risk assessment be written for this? We don’t even know who the riders are until they turn up on the day.

“We as town councillors are also concerned about public liability in this ‘new’ world of health and safety, so we begrudgingly took the vote to cancel.

“Many Fair goers will no doubt bemoan our actions, but ‘established practises’ hold ‘no water’ with Stockton council or ISAG.”

He said the town council fully supported the fair but added: “I asked the clerk and all the councillors at last Tuesday’s meeting if they could categorically say we are covered for all eventualities. It’s very worrying when councillors and our clerk cannot specifically confirm this, rather than state that its always been done this way and that the Showmen have their insurance anyway.”

He said the funfair would still be going ahead this year.

A spokesperson for Stockton Borough Council, said: “Yarm Town Council is the organiser of Yarm Fair and so it is for the Town Council to decide which elements of the event they deem to be safe or unsafe.

“We are always happy to provide advice and support to organisations who want to put events on in the Borough but at the end of the day, responsibility for those events rests with the organisers.”

The fair dates back to the 13th Century when King John granted an original charter.