THE organiser of the Parklife festival has admitted his embarrassment that legal highs were sold at the Heaton Park event — after he led a campaign against them.

Mr Jon Drape spoke before a meeting to several dozen people at a debrief meeting at the park's Orangery last Wednesday, in the wake of 150,000 people attending the two-day festival, which had followed a 25,000-capacity show headlined by Manchester rockers The Courteeners.

In the build-up to the festival, Parklife organisers warned ticket holders they would not be allowed in with legal highs and prevented street vendors from selling them.

But six people were taken to hospital after taking legal highs bought inside the arena — a fact Mr Drape apologised for.

"We were very public with our message in the run-up to Parklife and I took a very hard line. It's embarrassing for me to say that I was personally unaware that poppers were on sale in the arena. I'm very sorry for that," said Mr Drape.

"As soon as I found out, they were removed from sale. It's something we are investigating with the merchandisers."

Across the three days, there were 465 complaints. Of those, 148 concerned parking, 102 related to noise, and 60 referred to incidents of public urination.

There were 65 complaints about anti-social behaviour or requests for stewards to attend, while another 60 were about traffic or taxi issues, and 18 concerned litter.

Mr Drape admitted there were problems distributing some of the 5,500 parking permits to streets where parking restrictions were in place.

But he said some residents compounded the problem by selling parking permits "on the black market", usually over the internet.

He added: "This is something we need to look at, but it's challenging as it would be difficult to put the addresses of every house on each permit."

Johnny Gupta, manager of the Lime Tree restaurant in Bury Old Road, praised Parklife for liaising with local businesses in advance of the event but said more could be done to help the community.

Mr Drape said the event donated £45,000 to the Super Josh and Jigshaw charities — both Bury based — and that he was considering setting up a fund for community projects.

Manchester City Council's leisure manager Eamonn O'Rourke said Parklife contributed £186,000 of Heaton Park's £1 million annual running costs.

Peter Alderman, of Watkins Road, said: "I was trying to drive into my street which was in the parking permit area and the stewards didn't handle it in the best way.

"I wasn't sent a permit in advance and they need to be more sympathetic in such situations."

Most speakers on the night congratulated Parklife organisers for responding to complaints quickly and effectively, though not everyone was happy for it to come back next year.

Mel Abrahams, of Sedgley Park Road, added: "We do not want it.

"We haven't asked for it, it does nothing for us, and this is not the right place for it."

Mr Drape said a wide range of post-event data he had gathered — and presented at the meeting — would help him address problems such as parking, noise issues and taxi drivers breaking the rules.