THE opening day of the 149th Great Yorkshire Show has been deemed a success despite traffic problems.

The Great Yorkshire Showground, at Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, was bustling with crowds from the moment the gates opened.

Young and old mingled in the sunshine entertainment and stalls and browsed among the many categories of animals being displayed.

The crowds arrived despite severe traffic problems in the Harrogate area around 9am yesterday morning as crowds of people descended on the showground.

The show's committee had made efforts to curb the annual traffic problems which blight the popular event but their efforts seemed in vain yesterday. (tues 10) Nigel Pulling, chief executive of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, said: "We had the perfect show weather, even though June had been the wettest month on record, and we had to work very hard to ensure the car parks were in good order.

"There has been a lot of people at the show and the showground has been full and very busy and a lot of people had heeded our request and used public transport."

"But we had areas where there were traffic problems and we have had people out addressing them and we are very sorry if anyone was delayed in reaching the showground.

"It was not our intention to cause problems and we spent months planning the traffic routes to the showground. We have made some progress but other problems have occurred and there's always room for imrovement.

"Luckily there does not appear to have been any accidents but a lot of people made the decision to come early as the weather was nice.

"Ideally we would like people to come between 6.30am and noon but instad everyone seems to come together instead and snarl ups can happen quickly and take time to clear."

The show's committee had advised people to use the park and ride schemes provided while others made use of the larger trains provided to ferry people to Harrogate.

The committee estimates it will park a total of 40,000 visitors' cars in the show's car parks during the course of the event's three day run this year.

The traffic issue eased as time went on and by around 11am most of the problems had disappeared and the visitors were able to access the showground easily.

The visitors were able to enjoy a whole host of attractions include falconry displays, hundreds of stalls and music from the Band of the Royal Airforce Regiment.

The crowds were also able to enjoy over 40 categories of sheep which were been judged along with cattle and goats on the showground during the day.

The show starts again at 7.30am today (wed11) included the Royal Signals White Helmets display team, a display of beehive making and an exhibition of country pursuits.