Following a Penrith Town news investigation we can reveal that Councils and business organisations were discussing the uncertain future of Winter Droving behind closed doors months before the public was told the event was moving to Carlisle, while it has now emerged that Eden Arts had never submitted the road closure application needed to stage the event in Penrith.
The application, which needs to be made around four months before an event and costs approximately £1,000, had not been submitted to Westmorland and Furness Council for this year's Winter Droving, despite Eden Arts maintaining that it continued trying to find a way to keep the event in Penrith until shortly before the public announcement in September.
The missing application adds another significant detail to the growing timeline of events leading up to Winter Droving's departure, alongside council documents revealing earlier private discussions involving Penrith BID, Penrith Chamber, Penrith Town Council and Westmorland and Furness Council.
Emails obtained by Penrith Town News have also revealed that Eden Arts was already in contact with Cumberland Council about a Carlisle event in July, more than six weeks before Penrith was told that Winter Droving would not be returning this year.
For an event due to take place on Saturday 24 October, the normal four-month application period would have placed the deadline for requesting the necessary Penrith road closures around late June, well before the announcement that the event could no longer go ahead.
The absence of an application does not establish when Eden Arts made its final decision, but it raises a further question about how the organisation intended to deliver Winter Droving in Penrith if the required road closure arrangements had not been put in place.
Eden Arts has said it spent months trying to secure sufficient funding to keep Winter Droving in Penrith, with its board eventually deciding the organisation could no longer carry the financial risk of staging the event.
The organisation has also insisted that Carlisle only became a deliverable alternative less than two weeks before the announcement on 10 September, after Arts Council England agreed to transfer £65,600 in funding and Great Border City BID agreed to provide support.
However, emails exchanged between Eden Arts and Cumberland Council in July, under the subject heading "Re: Carlisle event", show arrangements being discussed for a meeting weeks before the public announcement. Although the correspondence does not establish that a final decision to relocate Winter Droving had already been made, it confirms that discussions about an event in Carlisle were taking place considerably earlier.
Meanwhile, council documents reveal that the possibility of Winter Droving not taking place in Penrith had already been discussed behind closed doors involving the town's BID, Chamber of Trade, Town Council and Westmorland and Furness Council.
That makes Penrith BID's subsequent claim that it learned of the cancellation through social media particularly notable. While the earlier meetings do not establish that the BID knew a final decision had been made, they show that concerns about whether the event would go ahead were being discussed well before the public announcement.
The funding problems surrounding Winter Droving have been well documented, with Eden Arts saying last year's cancellation left it around £20,000 out of pocket after two sources failed to honour financial commitments. The organisation said it paid artists, staff and suppliers and refunded traders despite the event being called off following advice from an independent professional event safety expert.
Eden Arts has also pointed to the loss of the £15,000 annual contribution previously provided by the former Eden District Council, which did not continue in the same way following local government reorganisation.
Westmorland and Furness Council has since provided £20,000 towards a separate event planned for next year by a company established by four councillors, while Penrith BID has been left trying to organise The Gathering as a replacement for Winter Droving on 24 October.
The BID's efforts have been hampered by the short time available to arrange the event, including the inability to secure the road closures and permissions needed for some of its original plans.
For Penrith, the latest revelation about the missing Winter Droving road closure application adds a new question to the events leading up to September's announcement.
If the application needed to be submitted around four months before Winter Droving, why had Eden Arts not applied to close the roads in Penrith by the normal deadline, and what plans were in place to stage the event without those arrangements?
With private discussions taking place months earlier, Carlisle correspondence dating back to July and no Penrith road closure application submitted, the question is no longer simply why Winter Droving could not go ahead.
It is how long before 10 September those involved knew that staging the Winter Droving in Penrith was becoming increasingly unlikely.
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