Geoff Helisma The Maclean Show Society has cancelled this year’s show as a result of damage to the showground’s buildings during the storm on January 2. The society’s president, Brian Ferrie, said that damage to the pavilions was the main obstacle. “After talking to [open spaces manager] Peter Birch from the council, we’d hoped to get repairs completed before the show. “However, he assured me it would probably take six months, which is July; our show is in April, so we really had no chance of running the show, because we need those buildings. “Doing a half-hearted thing is really not good enough.” The main pavilion, “probably built in 1984”, was shifted off its stumps, the Jim Thompson Pavilion lost its roof, as did the grandstand. There was damage to several other buildings, too. Mr Ferrie said all the repairs would be covered by insurance, “so everything should be right”. “Everything in the showground is heritage listed, so it has to be put back as it was,” he said. A Clarence Valley Council (CVC) spokesperson said engineering reports would be required to address “quite a few aspects”. “A number of [the damaged] buildings don’t meet current engineering or disability specifications,” he said. Minor works carried out by CVC staff were due to start this week. He said obtaining a report on the grandstand was a priority and that CVC had “no objection to the show going ahead”. He said that the area further down the hill “away from the covered area” would still be able to be used irrespective of the outcome of the engineering report on the grandstand. Maclean Highland Gathering Meanwhile, Maclean Highland Gathering representatives were due to meet with CVC yesterday [after the Independent went to press] “to ascertain what will be, or not, available at the showground” for the event on March 30 and 31. The gathering’s secretary, Alistair Smith, said “it will go ahead regardless” of the meeting’s outcome. He said other venues have been used when necessary in the past.