The four heavy-horse teams cost the West Show £16,500. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0622508)

WEST Show organisers are worried about rising costs.
The 2007 event cost £73,000 to put on and this year’s is expected to have cost more.
Bailiff Geoffrey Rowland last week urged businesses and particularly the finance sector to support the summer shows after North organisers had raised the same concerns.
West Show secretary Carole Turner said she had written to 13 separate finance houses seeking sponsorship for the heavy horses that appeared at this month’s event.
‘One wrote back and said they would refer it to their charities committee, then they wrote again and said they were unable to help, which is fair enough,’ she said.
‘At least they had the courtesy to reply because I heard nothing from the rest.’
Show treasurer Ali Bourgaize said the West had survived with limited sponsorship and it was grateful to those companies that had helped.
Northern Trust provided £1,000 as did Moore Stephens Chartered Accountants but the total sponsorship was only about £3,000.
‘We don’t want to become commercial and a big corporate thing, but we have to run like a business,’ she said.
‘We have to commit ourselves to bring entertainment from the UK and we have our reserve, but we only need two days of rain one year and we could be in trouble.’