UNAUTHORISED road restrictions enforced by Monster Truck Mayhem were partly to blame for traffic chaos, said county council.

Many of the hundreds of people who attended Monster Truck Mayhem on Worcester's Pitchcroft on Sunday (June 23) had complained of heavy traffic and long queues throughout the city.

Worcestershire County Council has confirmed that part of the reason for the traffic is unauthorised road closures which were put in place by the event organisers.

David Bailey, the event organiser, said he could not comment on until the council has completed its investigation into the matter.

The event started slowly yesterday (Sunday) because of what some drivers have called "mayhem" traffic, long queues to enter, and one of the trucks beginning to smoke.

A spokesperson for Worcestershire County Council said: "The good weather contributed towards a larger than expected turnout of people attending the Monster Truck Mayhem event at Pitchcroft.

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"We are aware however, of some unauthorised road restrictions that were put in place by the event organisers, and we will be holding a post-event review with them, their traffic management company, and Worcester City Council.

"There were also some emergency roadworks in other locations around the city, which may have also contributed to the congestion.”

Monster Truck Mayhem initially had a licensing application approved to increase its capacity to between 10,000 and 14,000 people.

A Worcester City Council spokesperson, who approved the licensing, said: “The organisers of the Worcester Balloon Festival and Monster Truck Mayhem varied their premises licence this year to increase the capacity at their events to between 10,000 and 14,000 people.

“The licence is for a similar number of attendees to other events held at the site over the last few years such as The Worcester Show.”

Previously, Mr Bailey said he would not take criticism for problems in city centre car parks unconnected to the event.

"It's people not listening to what we were saying - 'please use public transport where possible and walk if you can and please use city-centre car parks, please use infrastructure in the town and try to avoid Pitchcroft'."

"But people don't listen - and we're the bad people."