THE ferris wheel which stood outside the Town Hall suffered a loss of almost £30,000 in four weeks.

An internal briefing note leaked to the Warrington Guardian shows less than 5,000 people used the wheel during the month it took centre stage over Christmas.

And with marketing costs of £6,000, running costs of £32,000 and a bill of almost £1,500 to replace the battered turf on the Town Hall lawns, the council had to fork out £22,621 and Warrington Borough Transport £6,000 to break even.

The number of visitors would have needed to be tripled to break even with the council blaming poor weather' which could not have been anticipated' for the loss.

The note said: "In overall terms the ferris wheel did not attract the hoped for numbers of visitors.

"The opportunity to have such an attraction was presented at a stage where many of the more established Christmas activities had already been booked and based on testimonials from other towns.

"We could not anticipate that December 2007 would be one of the wettest on record.

"It was unfortunate that the weather had such a significant and detrimental impact on visitor numbers."

The council says it was approached to host the ferris wheel in September.

Clr Mike Hannon (LAB - Orford) has slammed the wheel.

He said: "What an absolute load of rubbish and waste of rate payers money.

"Another surprise, did you know we get bad weather in December?

"I must contact the meteorology office immediately regarding Warrington Borough Council's remarkable findings.

"And 4,990 rides, I would like to see a day to day break down as to how these figures were arrived at."

Clr Hannon also said there was never a proper tendering process before the contract for the ride was agreed and questioned whether there needed to be planning permission.