Cost of the Jenson Button extravaganza revealed by Frome Town Council

Jenson Button greets the Frome crowd

FROME Town Council has revealed the amount spent on the Christmas Extravaganza event which saw thousands of people turn out to see local Formula One star, Jenson Button, race around the streets of the town. 

The council put the full breakdown of costs on their Facebook page with the total cost for the event on both the Friday and Saturday reaching £69,703, with £45,666 of that total contributed by Santander.

The statement on the Facebook page says, “There have been rumours that the council paid Jenson to attend, which is absolutely not true. The original budget Frome Town Council (FTC) allocated for the Extravaganza was £6,000, a further £18,000 was allocated to the event, in light of Jenson’s attendance and performance, in addition to these costs, Santander allocated £45,666. This provided a combined budget of £69,703 for both the Friday and Saturday events.

“FTC organised the event and was responsible for the facilitation of the Grand Prix track; this enabled us to get as many local groups and companies as possible to help us deliver this wonderful weekend. For example, Frome Cricket Club, Frome Rugby Club and Frome Football Club made their car parks available for overflow parking; Frome Carnival Club and St John Ambulance provided their specialist stewards and first aid teams; Frome FM compered the event; Mack Civils removed and replaced the speed bumps in the car park; the Landscape Group carried out extra litter collections; and Frome Minibuses ferried people from the overflow car parks down to the town. Many thanks to these and everyone else who made the event so special.

“The full breakdown of expenditure revealed in the statement was as follows:

• The red and white crash barriers – £20,535

• Specialist marshals, other safety requirements and specialist event management advice – £13,052

“The remainder went on local suppliers including:

• Carnival Committee marshals at car parks – £600

• Donation to football, cricket and rugby clubs for use of overflow car parks – £300 (£100 each)

• Toilet hire – £800

• Walkie talkie radio hire (one for every marshal, steward, event worker) – £581

• Removal and re-instatement of speed bumps in car park – £3750

• Extra litter collection – £733

• Temp road signage (diversions etc) – £1,090

• Stage hire, PA, extra street lighting, Frome FM, cabling – £18,100

• Saturday street entertainment, pre-Jenson Button entertainment in car park and event management – £6,000

• Somerset County Council cost of road closure – £1,000

• Mendip District Council compensation for closing Market Yard car park – £1,337

“Six other small local suppliers were paid less than £500 each including St John Ambulance, Frome minibuses, Avon Fire Extinguishers, T Bos welding, leaflet printing and catering.