It   is   with   very   great   regret   that   the   Rotary   Cub   of   Royston   has   to   announce   the   cancellation   of   this   year’s   Royston   Kite Festival. This   year   for   the   first   time   ever,   we   were   asked   to   obtain   Section   38   planning   approval   for   our   Kite   Festival   on   Therfield Heath.   Section   38   approvals   relate   to   works   on   Common   Land   and   are   granted   by   the   Planning   Inspectorate   based   in Bristol. We   submitted   our   application   in   November   last   year.   Applications   can   be   processed   in   a   matter   of   weeks   if   there   are   no objections.   However,   an   objection   has   been   raised   by   Natural   England   and   we   are   still   waiting   for   the   Planning   Inspectorate to   make   their   decision.   We   have   now   reached   a   point   where   we   must   start   to   incur   costs   if   the   event   is   to   take   place   this year,   and   we   cannot   recover   those   costs   if   approval   is   denied   and   the   event   has   to   be   cancelled.   And   so   we   have   very reluctantly decided to cancel this year’s event. We   would   like   to   take   this   opportunity   to   thank   everyone   who   has   supported   the   event   over   the   past   30   years   including   our main   sponsors   :   Johnson   Matthey,   Tees   Law,   Royston   First   BID   company   and   NCPI   Solutions.   We   wuld   also   like   to   thank   all the   friends   of   the   Kite   Festival   including:   all   of   our   amazing   Kite   Flyers,   Birches   Funfair,   Paul   &   Kay   Readhead,   the   Scouts, The   Friends   of   Royston   Heath,   Clive   Hall,   Clare   Swarbrick,   the   Hertfordshire   Constabulary   and   the   Hertfordshire   Fire Brigade. Over   the   years,   they   have   helped   us   raise   over   £100,000   for   mostly   local   charities   including:   Home   Start, The   Sick   Children’s Trust,   East   Anglia   Air   Ambulance,   Angles   (a   Hertfordshire   Charity   supporting   children   with   ADHD)   and   Hertfordshire   MIND Network (a local mental health charity) and many others.