LYMM Historic Transport Day has been called to a halt with the main organiser calling it a 'bitter disappointment'.

Until Monday this week, Lymm was counting the days to the return of its first major annual event since 2019.

The community celebration would have seen a flypast by a Spitfire of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight on June 27.

It had been given the green light by Warrington Borough Council’s Safety Advisory Group even if Boris Johnson had not delayed lifting all Covid restrictions from June 21 to July 19.

But on the same day there was a separate announcement affecting Warrington with new measures to tackle the Delta variant of the coronavirus including surge testing, an enhanced vaccination programme and people being urged to minimise travel in and out of the affected areas.

Event director Alan Williams said: “ We would have hundreds of exhibitors and traders coming from all over the region, not to mention the thousands of visitors, many who have already booked from as far afield as Scotland and the south of England.

"Given this new guidance and the scale of our event, we felt we had no alternative but to take the responsible decision and cancel.

"In fact even before our own announcement, we received the first withdrawal from a key exhibitor late yesterday evening as a direct result of the new measures.

“It’s a bitter disappointment, particularly after all the efforts and amendments we had made to ensure a safe event.

"Like everyone we had been anxiously watching as case counts started to rise locally but with hospital Covid admissions in Warrington still very low we remained optimistic that we would be able to go ahead with our outdoor event."

Work will now start immediately on informing the hundreds of exhibitors, traders and suppliers.

For many it was their first event since 2019.

Around 1,400 advance ticket holders are also being notified and are in the process of being refunded as soon as possible.

It is said to have put a 'sizeable, but hopefully not terminal, dent' in the volunteer organisation’s finances with the group set to meet later in the year to make plans for 2022.