PREDICTIONS that Stow would be plunged into chaos by last week's gipsy horse fair failed to materialise.

Police engaged in a damage limitation exercise to prevent the fair spreading out around the town when it became clear that for the first time in many years it would not be taking place in the field between Maugersbury Lane and Oddington Road.

The owner of the field, gipsy Andrew Lovell, refused to open it to the gipsy traders this year as a protest against the court injunction obtained by Cotswold District Council in 1996 banning overnight camping in the field.

His action prompted fears among many nearby residents that the gipsies would instead set up their stalls along roads throughout Stow, causing traffic chaos.

In the end the impact was limited and inspector Eric Moore, in charge of policing the Stow area, said: "It did cause us some problems and it was very much a case of damage limitation, because they had to go elsewhere.

"What I didn't want was them going the length and breadth of Maugersbury Lane, as that could have caused horrendous problems for the local residents there."

Negotiations with the gipsy traders led to more stalls than normal being set up along the lane and others spreading into The Park and round the corner into Oddington road.

"It took an awful lot of negotiations with the travellers themselves, but we did manage to prevent the town coming to a standstill and we didn't have that many problems," said Inspector Moore.

A key to that was a decision on safety grounds to allow the horse traders to use the district council-owned car park for exercising horses to avert the risk of horses trotting up and down the main roads.

The October fair is traditionally much smaller than the May fair and Inspector Moore added: "Had it been the May fair, I hate to think what could have happened."

The closure of the gipsy field and plans for dealing with any such action at future fairs are set to be discussed today (Thursday) in an extraordinary meeting of Stow Town Council being held in the library at 1.30pm.

One suggestion already mooted is to divert the traders to the Lower Swell road cricket field, owned by the town council, where some gipsy stalls used to go on fair days.