AN OFF-ROAD motor festival which has raised £110,000 for charities is off after the military landowners wanted more money for hire of the venue.

Abingdon 4x4 Festival is the Rotary Club of Abingdon’s biggest fundraising event and has been held at Dalton Barracks airfield for the last 10 years.

It was due to take place on September 24 and 25, but organiser the Phoenix Land-rover Club said the Defence Estates wanted restrictions.

The main beneficiary of the event has been Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust, with more than £50,000 in donations.

In a statement on the event website, the Rotary Club said the Defence Estates were expecting “substantially increased revenue” and wanted to impose more restrictions, which made the event no longer viable.

The statement said: “The representative of Defence Estates seemed unwilling to take into account that this is a community event to raise money for local charities, which serve the residents of Dalton Barracks, Abingdon, and the wider community of Oxfordshire.”

It is not known how much the MoD was asking to host this year’s Abingdon 4x4 Festival, but a decision was made to cancel it on Friday.

The web statement said: “Defence Estates would be expecting substantially increased revenue from the event in 2011, together with the imposition of a number of restrictions concerning the use of the site.”

The festival has raised money for charities such as Helen and Douglas House, Against Breast Cancer, the John Radcliffe Hospital, and Down’s Syndrome Oxford.

Stevey McAleer, vice chairman of the Phoenix Landrover Club, said: “They [Dalton Barracks] want more than we are charging at the moment, which leaves nothing for the charities.

“They put huge restrictions on the off-road course and on the number of vehicles. We will have less people coming and we will have to pay more money out.

“The Landrover Club is gutted to say the least.”

The Rotary and Landrover clubs had hoped to make the festival bigger this year.

Mr McAleer said: “We have been trying to expand the festival to include the entire family, not just the people who drive 4x4s.

John Thompson, of the Rotary Club of Abingdon, said: “It’s big shame because everybody is losing.”

Ministry of Defence spoke-sman Becky Clark said the cost had risen as the application was for a bigger event.

She said: “These charges were in keeping with the standard charges for such events, which are regularised country-wide by the MoD.”