A CHIPPENHAM festival was cancelled over the weekend after three security guards who were scheduled to work were killed in a car crash in Manchester.

Organisers of ChippFest's Rockin' in the Park event in John Coles Park were forced to cancel the big finale on Saturday with only a few hours’ notice after half of the eight security staff scheduled to work the event were involved in a devastating car crash last week.

Brian Reid, who helps run the event with fellow Chippenham FM colleague Andy Thatcher, said: "This year planning was going really well and the festival started on June 23 and we have had events taking place all over the town over the last ten days and the finale was due to take place in the park on Saturday.

"Everything was in place and we were ready but at 6.21pm I got an email from Security Watch to say that half of the team of eight security staff had been involved in a road traffic collision in Manchester earlier in the week.

"Three of them had died and one was in intensive care in hospital and the other members of the team were unavailable to work the next day.

"I stayed up all night to make phone calls to try and get a security team that would have been able to run the event and I also spoke to the John Coles Park supervisor who told me what I already knew - that the event could not happen without adequate security.

"We tried everything we could and we met at 7.30am in the park on Saturday to make more phone calls but at 8.30am we had a consultation with park management and concluded that the only option was to cancel the event.

"It is devastating but I am happy we did the right thing and the most important thing is the safety of the people."

An update from Security Watch is expected later this week.