Heveningham Hall 'sorry' for fireworks car parking 'chaos'

Some ticket holders were turned away from Heveningham Hall's fireworks display

The organisers of a firework display have apologised for car parking "chaos" which meant some ticket holders were turned away after hours of queuing.

A number of social media users complained the organisation of Saturday's event at Heveningham Hall in Suffolk was an "absolute joke".

"Sat in traffic for over 2 hours despite being just over a mile away," commented one Facebook user.

Heveningham Hall's owner said: "We can only say how terribly sorry we are."

"We wouldn't wish that on anyone," Lois Hunt added. "We've been running the event for 10 years and we've never experienced problems like that.

"We were at the mercy of the weather. Our volunteers were so upset, they worked so hard and tried desperately to get people in.

"We're going to put out an email address for people to contact us with issues. And we'll be looking at the organisation of parking to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Nicola Pursey tweeted this photo of the effects of the "Glastonbury-style" mud

Nicola Pursey, who managed to get into the event with her husband and two children, said every two-wheel drive car "had to be pushed".

"There was mud everywhere. It was like Glastonbury. Some people were stuck for two and a half hours - it was complete chaos."

Twenty members of Norfolk and Suffolk's 4x4 response were at the event to "keep things moving", the organisation said.

"We always have four to eight vehicles on each gate, and the estate tractors. But we've never needed them before," Mrs Hunt said.

"I want to thank all of our car park volunteers, who worked so hard, and everybody who came."