One of the major routes to the Boardmasters festival – which always leads to congestion – will be completely changed this year to only allow shuttle buses and taxis through, ensuring thousands of cars will not impact the local community, writes LDR reporter Lee Trewhela.

A “particularly chaotic” car park, which festival-goers were stranded in for hours when the festival ended last year, will also be changed. By moving day parking and pick up and drop off to an off-site car park, the event aims to remove around 4,000 cars from the road network entering Porth and Newquay.

Concerns about the impact on roads around the site at Watergate Bay, particularly on the neighbouring beach hamlet of Porth, were raised at a Cornwall Council licensing meeting yesterday (Wednesday, February 14) when councillors allowed Boardmasters to increase its capacity from 53,000 to 58,000 from this year to 2026. The festival organisers had requested an incremental increase to 66,000 by 2026.

In a health and safety report, a council officer noted that the festival’s Blue car park was “particularly chaotic and inadequately managed”. The area’s Cornwall councillor John Fitter aired concerns about the traffic impact on the local roads system, as raised by Newquay residents, and said he could not willingly agree to an increase in capacity as a result.

Matthew Phipps, legal representative for Boardmasters, told the committee: “It is impossible for us to sit in front of you today and not recognise that there will be impact. Are there modest cases of where things weren’t attended to properly? Probably. We are constantly looking to learn and improve but I’m bound to make the point that congestion, delays on the road network, is not, respectfully, public nuisance.

“Anybody who attends a significant football match, rugby match, the Royal Cornwall Show, will know there will be congestion. The police have not engaged with regard to traffic.”

Cllr Phil Seeva responded: “That’s an underuse of the word ‘probably’ and an underuse of the word ‘modest’. The reports that we’ve seen, not just from a disgruntled neighbour but from the divisional member, is that we had issues with road closures not being attended properly by staff, a lack of signage in some areas and a complete breakdown of the one-way system. Can you assure me that you have confidence that you will be able to deal with that this time round?”

Mr Phipps said the one-way system issue was not a breach of the traffic management plan, which effectively allows for the road to become a two-way system at the end of the festival in order for customers to exit the event as efficiently as possible. Other issues had been addressed and wouldn’t be repeated in 2024.

Boardmasters’ CEO Andrew Topham explained the changes that will be made this year to limit the effect on roads and local communities. He said: “We take the impact on the traffic system incredibly seriously. We strive to minimise it every year.”

Mr Topham said the Blue car park (which provides day parking on the opposite side of the road from the main entrance) and Porth roundabout system wasn’t at the level organisers were happy with last year.

“It’s something we’ve gone away and reviewed and, irrespective of the licence being granted or not, we will be changing to make it better. The Porth roundabout system doesn’t cope on any busy summer day in Newquay, let alone when you put on one of the country’s bigger festivals near the town.

“We’re going to completely remove drop-off and day parking from those car parks. We’ve taken new space out which has hard-standing and we will build a park and ride to relocate those car parks and significantly reduce the traffic through Porth roundabout system and down through Porth beach.”

The only transport travelling via Porth will now be shuttle buses and taxis. He said the festival team had increased the number of shuttle buses and reduced the price of travelling on them.

“We’re incredibly confident that will improve and reduce the impact of Boardmasters traffic on the local community.”

One of the ways the festival will remove more cars visiting the site is a growth in its partnership with Big Green Coach, which offers a carbon neutral travel option. Boardmasters plans to transport 7,000 passengers in 2024 by creating ticket and coach packages. This would result in an increase of coach travel by 70 per cent year on year and 2,917 cars removed from the road network.

A new service will be introduced this year to provide day coach return services within a 90-minute radius of the festival. The buses will run from Exeter, Okehampton, Bodmin, Cornwall Services, Penzance, Falmouth, Truro, Plymouth, Launceston, Helston, Liskeard, St Austell, Treverbyn and Roche. This also aims to reduce the volume of traffic on the road network and provide an alternative safe travel option to local visitors.

Cllr Joanna Kenny, representing Newquay Town Council at the licensing meeting, said the festival’s traffic management plan is absolutely key and there had been failures with it.

“There are hordes and hordes of young people who walk back up the hill at night. It is very dark and very dangerous. We felt the [shuttle] bus was too expensive but I noted they said they’ll make the bus cheaper, but it depends if that means going from £8 to £7.50, or £8 to £1.50. That road is dangerous and it’s outside the Boardmasters site, so can Cornwall Council cope with increased numbers?”