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CUMBRIA'S crime commissioner told residents who complained about Appleby Horse Fair he would ban it if he could - but he accepts there is no prospect of scrapping the event.

Peter McCall now says he wants the Government to help Cumbria Police pay for the force's response, said to be the county's biggest policing challenge of the year.

Mr McCall made the initial comment as a routine surgery event at Kirkby Stephen turned into a impromptu public meeting, with angry residents venting their frustration about the antisocial behaviour of travellers as they converged on Appleby for this year's event.

But in an interview with The Cumberland News, Mr McCall accepted there was no chance of scrapping the fair.

"I was holding a routine surgery and it turned into a public meeting, with about 80 residents who were very upset over issues around the horse fair," said Mr McCall.

"At one point, I did say that if I had a magic wand I would ban it.

"But I went on to say that was not going to happen.

"The fair has been running for 300 years and banning it is just not an option, so we we have to manage it as best we can.

"Some people did feel as if they had been invaded and that's a legitimate concern and we have to do what we can to address it."

Mr McCall said the fair represented a "significant" extra cost for Cumbria Police.

It also demands considerable council resources for the clean-up operation, he said.

"There is also a cost to local residents in terms of aggravation and inconvenience," continued Mr McCall.

"The thing people complained about was intimidation.

"Some local people obviously just feel intimidated and that's largely about perception.

"And, not unreasonably, they feel that the answer to that is seeing more police around and of course that's always going to be a resource issue.

"The reality is that this year there have been very few problems when you consider that we had 30,000 to 40,000 people in Appleby on Saturday.

"There were remarkably few incidents.

"To be honest, you'd probably get more at a big football match."

One issue this year, said Mr McCall, was that the prolonged sunny weather meant more people were making their way to the fair sooner than in previous years, and they had been blamed for much of the antisocial behaviour - such as littering, and inconsiderate parking - as they travelled through the communities of Kirkby Stephen, Sedbergh, and Kirkby Lonsdale.

"And that has caused upset locally in these areas," said Mr McCall.

Despite the problems, he said, there was a significant tourism benefit and local traders also do well out of it.

Mr McCall added: "We get no money whatsoever for policing it.

"No police forces get additional funding for policing such events and I don't think that's right.

"Appleby Horse Fair is a national event, with people coming from all over the country, so I think it's only reasonable to expect we should get some additional funding.

"It's something I will take to the Home Office, but I won't be holding my breath."

Appleby's first fair was recorded in 1775 but in recent years the Horse Fair has become one of the major events of its kind in Europe, attracting Travellers from across the UK and beyond.