PLANS to use the car park at a Hampshire barracks as a park and ride when BoomTown returns to Matterley Bowl this summer have been put on hold, festival organisers have confirmed.

Organisers for the festival had approached the Army Training Regiment (ATR) at the Littleton site, near Winchester, in a bid to ease congestion from festival-goers.

Councillors on Littleton and Harestock Parish Council had heard at a recent meeting that the option was still being considered, but a spokeswoman for BoomTown has since confirmed the plans won’t be going ahead due to tickets already selling out.

The Army base, which opened in 1986, has large areas used for car parking. If it had been used it could have potentially ease the pressure on parking on the farmland site to the east of Winchester. There would also be less im pact on the current public car parking in Winchester city centre about four miles from the festival.

As previously reported, BoomTown is set to return to Winchester between Thursday, August 9 and Sunday, August 12. 2018 BRIT award-winning band Gorillaz are due to headline.

Earlier this year festival organisers had applied to expand the event’s capacity to 80,000 in 2019, but the plans were shelved in favour of more modest proposals including maintaining its current attendance capacity limit of 59,999, but with additional provision for 5,000 staff, artists and their guests, as well as an additional 1,000 tickets for local residents.