The organisers of the Eddie Cochran Festival say they are backing out of Chippenham because of its poor facilities and over-officious new parking wardens.

Gwen Hale and Ken Hersey say the Olympiad doesn't match up in terms of parking and catering.

The decline in the number of small guesthouses has also affected the decision.

"The council sent the traffic wardens round," said Mr Hersey.

He said around a dozen Cochran fans were landed with £30 parking tickets - and complained the rules were zealously enforced with one car getting a ticket because its front end overhung a yellow line.

Mr Hersey also said they had outgrown the Olympiad.

Next year the event will take place at the Sand Bay holiday camp at Kew Stoke, near Weston-super-Mare, in early autumn.

Although the venue has no connection with Cochran it does offer on-site accommodation, good catering and plenty of car parking without patrolling traffic wardens.

Ms Hale and Mr Hersey also feel snubbed by Chippenham because they have been unable to find a venue for their £7,000 memorial plaque, depicting Eddie Cochran on a slab of black granite.

Ms Hale said they wrote and emailed the town council a couple of weeks before the festival asking if they wished to have the plaque, but the offer wasn't taken up.

Town clerk Laurie Brown said they had never received a letter.

"We did get a phone call, but all I said was that it would need planning permission.

"We haven't taken any official decision on the memorial because we have not been officially asked."

A district council spokesman said: "It remains the drivers' responsibility to ensure a valid parking ticket is displayed."