IT is a great pity -- for the organisers, exhibitors, competitors and visitors - that for the first time in 236 years the last day of the historic Royal Lancashire Show had to be abandoned after being ruined by two days of heavy rain and traffic chaos.

But while it is easy to be wise in hindsight, it does seem that some aspects of this misadventure could have been predicted -- and this unhappy upshot avoided.

For although no-one could faultlessly foresee that the weather would turn out to be so detrimental, the problems of access to the new showground at Salesbury Hall, near Dinckley in the Ribble Valley, should have struck organisers and those responsible for the choice of site long ago. It may be that the traffic chaos -- causing vehicles to take at least an hour to get to or from the show -- was worsened by the number of visitors being higher than expected. But, even so, trouble was bound to occur with the choice of a site served only by a single country road.

Was no feasibility study done in advance? It seems someone had not done their work beforehand.

Now, as an inquiry takes place into what went wrong, it is vital to ensure that nothing like this occurs again. And any review must surely consider whether Salesbury Hall should host the show again -- when the problems of getting large numbers of people to and from that location stand out a mile.