A WINCHESTER resident has complained of “gas guzzling” tractors shuttling through the city centre to get from Boomtown to Romsey.

Green party member Richard Needham has spotted as many as three “massive” tractors with trailers carrying grass cuttings passing through the city centre every ten minutes until 9pm.

On Monday, July 10 Richard, who lives in Eastgate Street, decided to follow one of the tractors and saw that the vehicles were coming in and out of the Boomtown festival entrance in Alresford Road.

The Winchester resident continued to follow a tractor, with a full load of cuttings leaving the site, all the way to Romsey to a farm near Belbins Business Park.

Hampshire Chronicle: Tractor driving through city centreTractor driving through city centre (Image: Richard Needham)

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“During that trip, I met other empty tractors and trailers coming towards Winchester. These are gas-guzzling polluting diesel engines doing between four to seven miles per gallon I understand. I’m not sure why they need to come into the city centre at all.

“Winchester city centre already has a pollution issue and these massive tractors and trailers were coming back and forth all day with traffic backing up behind them.”

In response, a spokesperson for Boomtown said: “We appreciate that this disruption has been brought to our attention, and although we do not have full control of the routes that contractors take, we are speaking with the drivers to advise them of the impact on the local community. We are hopeful that there will be minimal disruption from tractors going forward.”

The festival will be back at Mattersley Estate near Winchester for its 15th anniversary from Wednesday, August 9 to Sunday, August 13.