Cannock Chase pop gigs in £125k losses

Open-air pop concerts staged by the Forestry Commission in Cannock Chase have made losses of more than £125,000 since they were launched in 2006, the Express & Star can reveal.

Despite five years of strong ticket sales and top headline acts, the taxpayer-funded forestry regulator has failed to make gigs pay or break even.

The first four years of concerts at Birches Valley, near Rugeley, featuring acts like Paul Weller, UB40 and the Sugababes, posted total after-tax losses of £126,203.

As part of its case for launching the concerts, which residents feared could heavily damage wildlife, the Forestry Commission pledged that all profits made would be reinvested in environmental projects.

The authority said today that Cannock Chase's losses are offset by profits made by the six other forest concert sites nationally and that they have been "a huge success".

Forestry Commission spokeswoman Becci Turner confirmed there were no plans to stop holding the concerts.

But figures disclosed under Freedom of Information laws show:

• Nationally, concerts raised just £12,416 in after-tax profit in 2009;

• The first concerts at Cannock Chase in 2006, featuring Embrace, lost £17,680;

• Subsequent concerts have lost an average of £36,000 per year;

• In 2009 five sets of concerts nationally made losses averaging £33,000, including a £33,000 loss at Cannock Chase despite ticket sales for Paul Weller's sell-out concert making £165,000.

• Cannock Chase is the only venue to have lost money every year until at least 2009. But the Forestry Commission predicts it will make a profit there this year.