STAFF at Fonmon Castle have issued a "final statement" on the cancellation of its festive light show.

On Friday night, staff announced that the Fonmon Festive Light Show would no longer go ahead due to a change in Welsh environmental health laws that made the attraction unviable.

After a weekend of confusion as to whether it was appropriate to cancel the attraction, a statement was posted to social media announcing that Fonmon Festive Light show cannot take place anymore.

"We can fight no more," read the statement.

"It is with a sad heart that we have to give our final statement in regards to our Festival of Lights Attraction 2020.

"We still feel that it is unfair that our attraction has been singled out when so many other attraction are remaining open but after a long series of correspondences between solicitors, NFU advisory officers, Vale of Glamorgan Environmental Health Dept, MPs and our public, we have reached the sad conclusion that we will no longer be able to offer the people of South Wales a festive attraction that now meets the ever changing rules and laws in relation to Covid-19 and recently updated government legislation.

"We are humbled by the support of our local community and the residents of South Wales.

"The castle has stood here for centuries and has witnessed everything from civil war to plague, we are sure that one day the walls of our great building will witness many other tales also.

"We would like to be clear that we tried every avenue we could to give you back a glimmer of Christmas fun at these difficult times.

"We are not angry at anyone, or any governing body, we are just disappointed that the rules keep changing and we are frustrated at not being able to provide probably one of our most magical walks.

"We are a small family business struggling in these difficult times and it would help us hugely if you only called for a refund after the date on your ticket.

"Our office staff will be able to handle your refunds in smaller batches more efficiently.

"We thank you for your help and please be patient and kind to our staff, we are all still struggling with the decision and we will do all we can to refund your monies as quickly as we can."

A Facebook post on Sunday disclosed that closure of Fonmon castle over the weekend was "enforced" by a senior environmental health officer and two police officers, who came to the site on Friday night.

At 2.42pm on Friday, Fonmon Castle received an email from a senior environmental health officer about a recent change made by the Welsh Assembly that made the maximum number of visitors allowed to attend an attraction at once 30.

"This was even more shocking to us as we had the Vale of Glamorgan Environmental health team with us on site for two days (they only left two hours before the light show was due to start) and we got an 'all clear' decision from the Vale of Glamorgan at that point," revealed Fonmon Castle on social media on Saturday.

"It is worth pointing out that even the Environmental Health Team for the Vale were not 100% aware of this new Welsh law.

"In fact, just a day previously the local police department had phoned us to confirm that they were all happy with our plans and our safety decisions.

"This new rule now placed us in a position where we would have to choose which 30 visitors we were allowing to attend and which 470 visitors we would have to refuse.

"This was an unfair decision for any business to make especially in the light that we had set the lights show up safely and under legal requirements to current laws and with the approval of the Vale Environmental Health Department."

Anyone with outstanding tickets should call for a refund on the day their visit was scheduled for, or leave their ticket for it to be honoured in 2021. Fonmon Castle have ticket holders' details and money stored ready to use for future visits.

You can contact the castle on 01446710206. Staff are currently processing refunds for 27 November – 1 December.