The name of the organiser behind a failed Ice Park event is being kept from the public.

Maidstone Borough Council was working with a mystery company on a Christmas Ice Park, which was set to bring weeks of festivities to Mote Park.

In September KentOnline revealed the event had been cancelled and anyone who bought tickets had been refunded.

But repeated attempts to discover who organised the doomed event have failed.

Maidstone Borough Council has now refused a Freedom of Information request, saying it wanted to protect the company's reputation - despite claiming the cancellation was not the company's fault in a previous statement.

A member of the council's Policy and Information team wrote: "I am not required to provide information in response to a request if it is considered to be commercially sensitive.

"In considering the public interest test, we consider that the public interest is greater for maintaining the exemption than it is for disclosure of the information.

"We consider that the disclosure of the event organiser’s name would be likely to prejudice their commercial interests because this company organises many different events and, if their name was publicly linked to a cancelled event, this could negatively impact on their sales and their ability to organise future events."

Had the Ice Park gone ahead as planned from December 21, it would have boasted an ice rink, dodgems, bars and live music right up until January 5.

MBC say it was cancelled after organisers were not given a personal guarantee on equipment arriving from Europe.

A spokeswoman said: "Having failed to reach an agreement with the suppliers the decision was made by the organiser to cancel the event for this year and pursue an alternative supplier for a 2020 event.

"Maidstone Borough Council and the Ice Park Maidstone organiser were not willing sign off on this event without the public's interests being guaranteed and due to the lack of time to reinstate an alternative supplier, the decision has been made to cancel this year’s event."

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