Tavistock town councillors have admitted their decision to cancel this year’s historical Goose Fair was made with ’regret’.

The council narrowly decided by 7-5, with one member abstaining, not to go ahead with next month’s fair because of fears over public safety.

The decision was made against a background of concerns over a possible spike in Covid-19 infections caused by up to 20,000 people visiting Tavistock for the fair in a restricted area.

Devon has effectively been put into special measures because of its number of Covid cases, with more resources being thrown at the county in an attempt to curb the rate of infection.

Councillors also felt they did not want to be responsible for putting any more pressure on the NHS, which is expecting a wave of seasonal respiratory viruses such as flu.

Members were told that their own already overstretched staff, which has been reduced due to financial pressures caused by the pandemic, would struggle to put on the event.

Town mayor Andy Hutton, his deputy Cllr Ursula Mann and Cllr James Ellis all spoke in favour of staging this year’s fair following the success of Tavistock’s hosting of a segment of the Tour of Great Britain cycling event.

But the majority of councillors, while not disagreeing with the fact they wanted to run the fair, were not happy to put members of the public at risk as there was no way of restricting numbers to the event or checking whether they had been vaccinated.