Bike Night axed after 27 years due to rising costs

Boston Bike Night regularly attracted thousands of people to the town

One of Lincolnshire's most popular motorcycle meet-ups has been cancelled because of "ratcheting" costs, organisers say.

Boston Bike Night, which regularly attracts thousands of people into the town, has been cancelled after 27 years.

David Tuley said the event had cost more than £3,000 to put on in July and with costs expected to rise further organisers had taken the decision to call time.

He said he feared rising costs coupled with the growing number of "rules and regulations to jump through" could spell the end for other volunteer-run events.

Hundreds of classic bikes were part of the draw to the Boston event.

He told BBC Radio Lincolnshire one of the difficulties organisers had encountered was having to arrange and pay for first aid, paramedics, insurance and toilets.

"There are a lot of rules and regulations to jump through these days," he said.

"It's slowly ratcheted up over the years and the costs of putting it on have ratcheted up accordingly, and this last year we actually made a loss.

"Well, obviously, you can't carry on making a loss, it just doesn't work with a voluntary thing that's provided free of charge."

He said the organising committee was "very sad" to "pull the plug" on the event, which had begun in 1996 and taken place every year except 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic.

He added: "Voluntary things are going to become a thing of the past, because volunteers have to jump through all the same hoops a big commercial organisation has to jump through.

"[There's] a lot of risk if something does go wrong and yet no reward."

Boston Borough Council said they were looking at ways they could support the event or help arrange future events.

Dale Broughton, portfolio holder for town centre, said he was made aware of the official announcement last week and encouraged anyone interested in helping to run the event to come forward.