Angry residents have threatened to disrupt this year's Bingley show by refusing access to a key road.

Thirty-seven residents at 48 houses on Aire View Avenue have signed a petition protesting about the plans to move the show to its new venue at the Bradford & Bingley Rugby ground from its traditional home at Myrtle Park.

Organisers say increasing health and safety legislation and concerns over tenure to access at land off Ireland Bridge used by horse-boxes are behind their decision to find a new venue.

The petition and letter sent to Airedale Agricultural Society says: "We can state that as this road is an unadopted road and we as residents are the owners of the road, we categorically and unequivocally state that access in this manner will be denied for the following reasons."

These include worries over show-goers using residents' front gardens as a short cut, wear and tear of the road surface and major disruption caused by all the additional traffic.

Another letter by the protestors says: "Aire View Avenue is wholly owned and maintained by the residents and we are shocked and affronted by this decision to ride roughshod over the residents in this manner."

But Jim Hinchliffe, one of the society's vice-chairmen, said: "The Sports Club have the right of way on Aire View Avenue for both vehicles and pedestrians. We have confirmed that the club has a right of way.

"To use the old phrase: 'The Show must go on.' This will only have a public effect on six houses.

"We had to make a quick decision and didn't have time to get into consultations with 48 householders.

"We are more than happy to fill in potholes before and after the event there. We shall only be taking in light cars, dogs and cats and horticulture that way, there won't be any heavy wagons."

One of the residents who signed the petition, Julie George, 32, said: "My main worry is that it is going to make the road worse. We are the ones who will have to pay for its upkeep.

"They have not been round to put our minds at rest, maybe if they did, I would think differently."

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