Snow puts paid to Rotary club's seasonal Melton Santa Fun Run

The eighth annual Santa Fun Run around Melton Country Park was cancelled because of the snow.
Melton Santa Fun Run PHOTO: Tim WilliamsMelton Santa Fun Run PHOTO: Tim Williams
Melton Santa Fun Run PHOTO: Tim Williams

Organisers, The Rotary Club of Melton Mowbray, were forced to stop the event from going ahead on Sunday due to safety fears on and around the course.

Rotarian Alison Blythe said: “We’re disappointed to have let people down but a decision had to be taken on what was the safest solution, and the safest solution was to cancel.

“That end of Wymondham Way was like a skating rink because no gritters had been up there.

People would’ve had to have travelled in the snow to get there and so their safety became paramount. In those conditions we wouldn’t have had enough people to marshall the course either.”

A decision was taken by the club to call off the event the night before. A message on their Twitter said: “We are sorry that Sunday’s Santa Fun Run has been cancelled due to the high probability of heavy snow before and during the event.”

Some Rotarians did go to the country park on the day in case people turned up at the start between 10.30-11am.

Alison added: “This is the first time this has happened in eight years of doing it. It’s very regrettable and a shame because we had 240 pre-entries, which is the highest ever.

“It’s difficult to find a time to reschedule as permission is needed from the council. We’ve looked at dates in the New Year, spring and summer, but it’s just not going to be possible to do it again. Plus it’ll probably lose its merit running it at those times of the year.”

“We’ve learnt that in future we need to have a contingency date.”