Organisers of this year’s Royal Windsor Horse Show have denied victimising travellers by stopping them from entering the show.
Several angry travellers who were barred from entering the show grounds wrote to show organisers Horse Power claiming victimisation.
A spokesperson for Horse Power confirmed to H&H that some travellers were turned away but said it wasn’t exclusively travellers.
She said: “Travellers and other people were turned away at the gates by stewards and police. We have the right to refuse entry to any individual. The police and stewards judge it on a case by case basis. There were a number of travellers in the show. It’s just unfortunate a number weren’t allowed in.”
Traveller, Helen Collins, told the Daily Telegraph: “I wasn’t allowed in. They said that due to the year before and thieving they were not going to allow any more in. They turned quite a lot of the Gypsy community away.”
Mary Ball, a ‘settled Traveller’ from Sandhurst, Berkshire told the Telegraph: “The security guard told us, ‘you can’t come in’. At first he didn’t give a reason. Then he said: ‘Your kind are not welcome’. He mentioned either the ‘Travelling kind’ or the ‘Travelling community’.”
Over the four days of the show (7-11 May) over 50,000 people attended, including the Queen.
www.rwhs.co.uk
