Saddleworth Annual Beerwalk announcement, November 2011.
A spectacular event, which has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities, has been scrapped.
Saddleworth Round Table, who have organised the legendary Beer Walk for 38 years, decided to call off the event after issues surrounding this year’s walk.
They cite police costs linked to clean-up changes and traffic management as key issues. And they say problems were exacerbated by rogue hangers-on who used the colourful event as a cover to raise money, given naively by locals, to fund personal drinking sprees.
In all, they estimate it would costs £58,000 to stage next year’s event which would have been held over an 11.2 mile route covering key villages in the community. And Round Table’s committee are determined to protect the club’s future reputation which could have tarnished by problems on the walk.
This year, the event raised £41,000 and more than £200,000 has been donated to a wide range of deserving local charities over the last five years. Dressed in inventive and creative fancy dress costumes, thousands of dedicated fund-raisers from across the North West and beyond throng the Pennine community to take part in the walk.
Said Dave MacDougall, the Beer Walk’s chairman: “It is an absolute tragedy that an event which has raised so much money for worthy causes – and really put Saddleworth on the map – has had to be scrapped."
“It was a devastating decision,” he declared. “ We have been agonising over the walk’s future for months, but, eventually, after consulting our current and previous walk organisers, we decided sadly to cancel next years’ walk."
“We examined every aspect of the walk in great detail – from marshalling to reducing the number of beer stops - but could not find a formula to keep it intact and affordable.”
Round Table is now looking for another community event to replace the walk and keep the public and Saddleworth residents happy. Mr MacDougall added: “We naturally need police support. We raise up to £40,000 by the event but each collection bucket generates an average £150 - £250 which goes directly to the walkers chosen charity making the final total much higher.”
A police investigation in the aftermath of this year’s walk revealed at least 4,000 extra people joined the official walkers on the highway at certain locations.
Many were ‘heavily intoxicated’ and brought excessive amounts of alcohol. Bottles were thrown, smoke canisters let off – and one officer received broken ribs after being knocked to the ground.
A number of arrests – more than other years – were made for assaults and disorder.
However, after the event, police stressed they support the principal of Round Table raising money for worthy causes, but, with complaints from residents, they need to ‘balance the views of the wider Saddleworth community against those of the organisers.’