Disappointment as Burton Latimer's popular duck race postponed again

There will be no duck race in Burton Latimer this year after the popular event was postponed again.

It had been hoped that the family day out – which sees hundreds of plastic ducks bought by competitors released into the River Ise – would return to the 2023 events calendar.

Last year it was postponed twice, the second time being because it fell within the period of national mourning after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

But Burton Latimer Town Council has confirmed it won’t go ahead again this year and has released a statement after social media rumours about the reasons behind the decision.

They say legal restrictions meant they could not operate in the normal way while they had nobody in the position of town clerk or responsible financial officer, after the resignation of the person who previously held both roles. And, now that they have staff in place, they say a review found they needed a licence to run the race – but couldn’t get everything sorted in time for the event to be held when they had hoped.

A council spokesman said: "The council has now employed a team to run the office-based systems and have covered our due diligence by ensuring we split the role so we should not be left in a similar situation again.

“Within this due diligence and insurance review, it was discovered that an annual lottery licence would be required to run the duck race.

"Unfortunately, due to the time restraints, it was not possible to get all ‘our ducks in a row’ in order for the event to go ahead in the planned timeframe.”

The spokesman added that tickets will be transferred to next year when they say the event will be back ‘bigger and better’.

They said: “We realise this (the postponement) is a disappointment to many but please be assured that the planning was done, and we have everything ready to launch next year’s event on time and in full.

"Any existing ticket purchases are fully documented and will be transferred to next year’s tickets.”