VISITORS to the country’s biggest agricultural event will be greeted with new roads, more parking and better drainage this year.

Last year’s Great Yorkshire Show was a washout which cost the organisers about £2m after torrential rain forced them to cancel the last two days as the car-parks were turned into mudbaths.

But this year the organisers are determined to prevent anything similar happening and are spending an extra £500,000 – on top of their normal £3m budget – to do so.

The number of parking spaces will increase by more than 5,000 - an additional 30 per cent - giving greater flexibility for the tens of thousands of vehicles which flock to the show.

The land lies on the south side of the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate, and adjoins the existing site.

The extra 45 acres have been acquired from Rudding Park Estate and are in addition to the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s existing 270 acres, 170 of which are used for car parking, and about 100 acres for the show itself.

The society’s chief executive, Nigel Pulling said: “This is one of the most significant developments in our long history. Having to cancel the last two days of the 2012 show was heartbreaking.

“It’s not that we are expecting more cars, on the contrary, we are keen to encourage people to use public transport, but this gives us greater flexibility should it prove necessary.”

An extensive programme of groundworks is currently underway, which will see a new network of temporary roads – a total of about 3.4 miles and a similar amount of drainage.

Much of the siote has been used for parking for a number of years which has compacted the ground and two Yorkshire companies, Sumo UK Ltd and Ripon Farm Services, are currently sub-soiling the car parks to improve the drainage.

Mr Pulling added: “To help improve access, we’re using about 13,000 tonnes of stone for the roads and also at gateways of many of the car park entrances, which should also make a real difference.”

Following last year’s cancellation, a topographical survey of the show site was carried out and as a result, drainage within the showground itself has also been improved and increased.

*Dates for this year’s show are July 9 to 11. About 130,000 people are expected to attend and tickets are now on sale.