Grandma's £100 bill for axed '˜Deaf' event

A grandmother was left with a £100 tab after a planned '˜Deaf' festival near Leighton Buzzard was axed.
Tickets to the Deaf Foam Festival PNL-160502-135606001Tickets to the Deaf Foam Festival PNL-160502-135606001
Tickets to the Deaf Foam Festival PNL-160502-135606001

Gillian Stone paid for two £50 tickets in order to take her 16-year-old granddaughter to the Deaf Foam Festival that was due to take place July 8 to July 10 at Stockwell Farm in Eggington.

After the event was cancelled – having been refused a licence – Mrs Stone contacted the ticket vendor expecting a full £100 refund for both tickets. But the executive assistant was stunned to be given the cold shoulder by the England Deaf Party.

Mrs Stone said: “I’ve probably sent 30 or 40 emails to the seller asking about the refund and he has continued to ignore me.

“He blocked me from Facebook. Eventually, I just decided I had to contact his relatives on Facebook.”

After a lengthy wait, Mrs Stone received reassurances from the vendor’s father that she would be refunded.

But as of yesterday, she was still waiting to see if that would take place.

Mrs Stone told the LBO that she believed up to 30 teenagers from her granddaughter’s school had purchased tickets for the event.

She said: “A lot of these kids are deaf, they can’t phone the vendor up because he also is deaf. My only contact with him has been in written form.

“I have had to be very persistent, it took me all day on one occasion to get through to him and that involved working from as soon as I got up in the morning.”

She added: “I’m also dealing with the disappointment of my granddaughter, who has just turned 16. It was going to be her first festival and so we put up the money.”

Back in February, CBC’s licensing sub committee rejected The England Deaf Party’s proposal for The Deaf Foam Festival to take place on July 8 to 10, with entertainment planned to run through until 4am.

Police and council officials had opposed the application because of a “worrying lack of detail” because of fears about noise, disorder and traffic.

The LBO contacted the England Deaf Party but so far has not had a response.