Appleby Horse Fair Pre-Fair drop-in extended

The public meeting held prior to the 2025 Appleby Horse Fair will be held on 14 May.

In previous years the meeting lasted for 90 minutes. This year it is to be revamped and extended to three hours in order to allow people the opportunity to discuss issues which impact them more effectively.

The meeting will begin at 5pm with a presentation by the Chair of the Multi-Agency Strategic Co-ordinating Group (MASCG) and the Police Gold Commander.

People attending will then have the opportunity to speak directly to and ask questions of different agencies, one-to-one, including Steph Cordon (Chair of the MASCG for Appleby Horse Fair), Detective Superintendent Dan St Quintin (Police Gold Commander for Appleby Horse Fair) and officers from Westmorland and Furness Council, Appleby Town Council, Cumbria Constabulary and other MASCG representatives.

Steph Cordon (Chair of the MASCG for Appleby Horse Fair): “As we are always looking at improvements to how we respond to the Fair, we have looked at how we can make the pre and post-Fair public meetings more beneficial to the public, as well as the MASCG participants.

“We have listened to some of the feedback from people – many of whom would like the opportunity to speak in-person with the MASCG representatives but are put off by having to do so as part of an audience – and sought to make improvements to how the meetings are held.

“We hope this hybrid approach where we still maintain the presentation to the public, before people are given the opportunity to speak directly with representatives of agencies of interest, one-to-one, will be well-received and prove beneficial to people.”

The public drop-in meeting will be held at Appleby Public Hall, from 5pm to 8pm on Wednesday, 14 May 2025.