ORGANISERS of Boomtown say campsite waste was down by nearly three-quarters compared to last year.

It comes after the festival – which was held at the Matterley Estate between August 7-11 – last year vowed to axe the event if the amount of waste did not drastically reduce.

Speaking in May, they said: “We are simply not willing to run the festival in the future unless this radically changes.”

In a statement on the festival’s Facebook page, organisers said this year’s event saw a 70% reduction: “Boomtown Chapter 11 was without a shadow of a doubt the best fair yet... despite the extreme weather we faced, the smiles, the laughter, the sheer energy on the dance floors was just immense!

Daily Echo:

“Campsite waste is down a whopping 70% on last year which is so amazing and shows a huge shift in environmental awareness.

“And finally, after 11 years of constant redesign, pioneering techniques and huge investment, we’ve actually cracked the sound levels!”

However, photos have been posted on social claiming to show areas of the Boomtown campsite covered in tents, airbeds and other rubbish.

There were also complaints over traffic after the festival.

One resident, John Mabb, wrote to Hampshire County Council’s transport chief Cllr Rob Humby to express his frustration. He wrote: " This afternoon [Monday] from about 2.45pm it took me around an hour to get past the Boomtown Festival site travelling in a westerly direction and onto the M3 sliproad.

“The traffic management was a disgrace with the usual two lanes mostly coned down to one creating a massive bottle neck. If the exercise was to allow vehicles at Boomtown to access the A31 then it was immense overkill because over the hour, we only counted about a dozen vehicles leaving the site!

Daily Echo:

“I can understand that the roads might have been busy over the weekend, but it has to be completely unacceptable for a major A road to be almost impassable on a Monday afternoon because of a private event.”

Traffic was heavier than usual in the city centre with the number of shuttle buses taking people to the station.

Responding, Cllr Humby said: "I’m sorry to hear that some residents were caught in traffic during the busiest time of Boomtown when the majority of people were leaving.

"The extensive traffic management plans are reviewed every year by all the agencies involved, and were available on Boomtown’s web pages. These included signs in and around Winchester ahead of and during the festival advising drivers of potential delays on those dates.

"With limited road space, an event of this size is always going to have an impact on local roads, as all the advice from agencies during the festival made clear. Given the scale of the operation, it’s a credit to the organisers that so many festival goers, performers, staff and volunteers left the site safely and roads returned to normal traffic levels by early evening.

Daily Echo:

“For our part, we kept the roads clear of planned works for the duration of the event and continually liaised with partners such as Highways England. On exit day, our teams adjusted the phasing of traffic lights within Winchester to help traffic flow, and Highways England made adjustments to the lights at Junction 9 of the M3.”

A spokesman for Winchester City Council also confirmed they had received 20 noise complaints relating to the festival from 17 residents.

Boomtown organisers have been approached for comment, but are yet to respond.