The carnival committee in charge of running the tradition of Tar Barrel rolling and the accompanying celebration have announced that they are having to cancel this year’s event due to the covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement released by the committee earlier this week, representatives said: “Having considered the options, we believe that we would not be able to run any event without creating a mass gathering.

“Health and Safety is paramount in everything that we as an organisation do and running out events would put our community and spectators at risk and would contravene the current government guidelines.”

It was hoped that at least one of the events would be able to go ahead but after some consideration and taking advice from local police, the decision has been taken to cancel the event. The event was due to take place on 5th November and there is some concern that people may still attend, unaware that the event won’t be going ahead.

The committee ended their statement by thanking all the authorities who help organise the event every year and how they were looking forward to working with them again in 2021. They also thanked Ottery Town Council, who had previously agreed a grant of £7,500 earlier in the year to help with funding the events should they be able to go ahead.