Bradford Council has revealed details of an obscure 120-year-old law which has forced Bingley Show organisers to move next year’s event from its favourite Sunday spot.

As exclusively reported in yesterday’s Telegraph & Argus, show organisers discovered they have been inadvertently operating illegally on a Sunday for the past decade after a resident’s complaint led to the discovery of the 19th-century law.

Under a little-known section of the 1890 Public Health Acts Amendment Act, it is legal for any local authority to close any park for an agricultural show – as long as it is not on a Sunday.

Bingley Show, which has been staged on a Sunday at Myrtle Park for the past ten years, will be held on Saturday, July 23, next year.

Jane Glaister, the Council’s strategic director for culture, tourism and sport said: “Bingley Show charges admission and uses the whole of the park. If Bradford Council was to continue to let Bingley show use Myrtle Park on a Sunday it would mean that the Council would be operating beyond its powers.”

Another part of the act does give local authorities powers to charge entry to a section of the park.

But Mrs Glaister said: “Unfortunately this only applies to a part of the park and not the whole or majority of the park which is necessitated by Bingley Show.”

Marion Walker, president of the Airedale Agricultural Society, said: “We would very much like to keep the great show that we have on a Sunday.”

The organisers have contacted Shipley MP Philip Davies who has vowed to “look into the law” with a view to it being changed by Parliament.

Next month’s Bingley Music Live, in Myrtle Park, will not be affected, as the local authority is allowed to close part of the park on a Sunday to paying customers and it will only use the bottom meadow.