Dear Review,

On Sunday we attended the Frost Fair at Hatfield House but had to queue up in a traffic jam for half an hour before being able to park. It was about 11am and coming from Mill Green, we started queueing about 150 metres from the Red Lion traffic lights. Cars were chock-a-block all the way to where we eventually parked in the Queens Oak field. Our queue must have been almost a mile! We also noticed that a long queue was formed going from the main gates to Hatfield Park from the direction of Welham Green.

I had my elderly mother with me and this was no treat for her at all. My husband counted the rows of cars and believes that approximately 1000 cars were parked in the fields that we could see. Goodness knows how many were in the big new car park south of the House? We estimate that about 5000 people were attending the event when we arrived, far too many to fit comfortably within the area of the Fair - good that it was.

Somebody had made a small fortune that day, but my concern is that events at Hatfield House, although very good, are spoiled by the jams created by visitors to the events. It's a lovely place to be, but better access needs to be sorted out.

Yours

Janet Stephens