MY fiancée and I, along with the help of several residents, campaigned against the animal circus in Waddington.

We contacted several authorities to seek their help but kept coming up against brick walls.

The parish council was powerless and highways didn't want to get involved unless there was an incident.

North Kesteven District Council admittedly went out to monitor light and smell pollution but, again, said there was nothing it could do other than monitor the situation.

NKDC visited our home as the floodlights that were on 24/7 shone into our home and measured it. We were only half a point below the legal limit and therefore it could not put restrictions on the circus.

It said there was no noise but it did not stay on site 24/7.

We live here. We had to put up with the heart-wrenching cries of the tigers and the sound of the donkeys and horses crying out and kicking the stalls they were kept in.

We walked the field most evenings and the field was a mess – the ground was churned up and there was a waste pipe pouring waste onto the field.

I contacted NKDC again and it said this was shower waste draining onto the field, so it should be OK. But it told the circus to make sure any debris was cleaned up when it left.

I felt like we were being fobbed off and that residents are expected to put up and shut up.

This was not a weekend event – the Great British Circus was here for weeks.

I have had several people e-mailing me asking why the parish council allowed this animal circus to take place, on what was a field left in trust for the residents of Waddington.

I told them it was not the parish council which did this, it was the Playing Fields Association.

My fiancée, fellow residents and I attended the parish council meeting on March 10 and several of us aired our concerns, but the answer we kept getting was this was out of our hands.

At one point we were told this may become an annual event. You can imagine how we all felt about that.

There were not as many visitors as the circus PR agent mentioned. I was informed by a resident of Station Road they had four leaflets posted through their door offering them free entry as long as they purchased a £3 programme.

This ticket also thanked them for displaying a poster in their shop.

This is a residential site – not a shopping precinct.

Was this a desperate attempt for the circus to get some bums on seats?

On a personal note, it really frustrates me that the committee responsible for this has crept into the background and left us to pick up the pieces.

My fiancée and I worked hard contacting authorities and the only person willing to assist us was our district councillor Tony Baxter.

We wanted this field back for our children to play in, dog lovers to exercise their dogs and for everyone to enjoy.

The only one good thing to come from this is that the community has been brought closer together.

In my line of work, I meet lovely people who I would normally just nod and say hello to on my travels.

But my family and I have really come to feel like a part of a lovely community and residents of Hobart Close are planning to hold a street party after the circus has gone – and to continue to hold events for Waddington where all can have fun and enjoy themselves.

KIM CRAWFORD Hobart Close, Waddington.