A councillor has called for improvements to be made to the Boardmasters Festival traffic management system.

St Columb Minor and Colan Cornwall councillor John Fitter believes more should be done to reduce the impact of the event’s traffic on residents and businesses.

The new traffic management system, which prevented people driving to the festival site through Porth, largely prevented congestion in Newquay.

But there were long queues along the A392 as people arrived at the festival site and outlying areas saw an increase in traffic.

Boardmasters organisers stated the new traffic management system “worked well” in managing the flow of traffic during peak arrivals and that there were no further delays or slow-moving traffic during the remainder of the festival.

Cllr Fitter said: “What I am also requesting is that Cornwall Council Highways who had input and oversight of the Traffic Management Plan as submitted by the Boardmasters  and indeed according to the Boardmasters it had their approval, should now explain why it went so terribly wrong. Marshalls stopping all traffic at four different points from Porth Four Turning to Porth for the entire length of the festival.

“Workers being denied access along the coast road to Porth from Mawgan Porth at 8am Tregurrian and St Mawgan despite the commitment from the Boardmasters that the road would remain open until 9am.

“How was it not possible to spot the errors in the disaster of the Park and Ride at St Columb Major especially on the Wednesday with attendees at the back of the  queue being told that there was a up to a two and a half hour wait to board the buses.

“Some gave up and started to walk to the Treloy green gate on a road that was already packed with traffic risking danger to life and limb.

“Whoever decided that it was a good idea to have a so called one way system in place starting at the airport junction to Tregurrian to Watergate and then to Tregurrian without informing the holiday traffic inside this triangle, so total chaos with traffic joining from various points against the one way system, what a joke.

“All over the area we had stewards directing traffic with no knowledge of what they were supposed to be doing, operating one way systems when there was no system in place to control it, failing to operate one way systems when they were in place by virtual of it being part of the planning permission, this was happening on the Treloy Lane, failing completely to control no entry points, to lanes and roads where there were traffic orders in place to do that very thing.

“All summed up by the reply I received from a senior officer from Cornwall Council who informed me during the event with this comment. Traffic management is undertaken by the Boardmasters acting under delegated police powers and not something that the Council control.

“What a disgrace. The police delegated the ATTRO powers to the Boardmasters and our council have no control. Truly the world of Mickey Mouse.”

Mayor Cllr Drew Creek believes this year’s Boardmasters traffic plan was a “huge” improvement on what “we’ve seen before.”

Cllr Creek said: “Rather than having festival traffic coming through Newquay to get to the site all inbound festival traffic was led through green gate near the aero hub.

“This meant that the roads in Newquay where free to flow, this is important because it meant locals could get around town to do their shopping, see their GP and more importantly allowed pharmacies to make life saving deliveries.

“This is not something we witnessed in previous years. I am however mindful that where we have benefited from improved traffic flow this has meant a knock-on effect to surrounding villages and of course I will work with Boardmasters to further improve. Boardmasters park and ride was a huge success.”

The hamlet of Tregaswith was among the outlying areas that were impacted more this year by Boardmasters traffic.

Mary Harvy said: “Scores of vehicles were using Tregaswith lane as a short cut and driving very fast.

“I nearly got knocked down by a Mini full of four young men and all their camping gear. He just swerved in time to avoid hitting me by the pony-field gate.”

A spokesperson for Boardmasters said: “As anticipated, the roads were busy on Wednesday as Boardmasters welcomed peak arrivals. 

“The new traffic management system worked well in managing the flow of traffic during peak arrivals, and for the remainder of the festival, through which we saw no further delays or slow-moving traffic.

“The plan was also in place to reduce impact on Porth, which was achieved. Boardmasters shuttle bus service was operational throughout the festival period. 

“We are aware of First Bus strikes, which were unrelated to the festival.”