CHEF Mark Hix said he is ‘disappointed for Lyme Regis’ after a fundraising food festival was cancelled.

The two day 2012 Food Rocks festival was pulled after publicans from the Cobb Arms pub and restaurant claimed it would harm their business.

The festival, part of Lyme Lifeboat Week, would have seen chefs and food experts raising money for the RNLI on the harbour slipway on Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29.

Mr Hix, who owns the Lyme Regis Hix Oyster and Fish House, was offered an alternative site on the shingle beach next to the Lifeboat Station but his main sponsor said the site was unsafe and withdrew.

The chef’s PR Jo Harris said they were left with no choice but to cancel the event.

Mr Hix said: “As far as I’m concerned I was doing the festival in good faith and sadly this happened with the Cobb Arms.

“They don’t get it. I did the Weymouth Seafood Festival demonstrating with other chefs in front of other businesses and everyone was drinking outside these pubs.

“It was disappointing for Lyme Regis – organising a food festival and then getting sponsorship for one single publican to refuse.”

The festival would have finished with a cook-off between the lifeboat crews from Lyme and Dartmouth.

Mr Hix has raised thousands of pounds for the RNLI over the years and was expecting the festival to raise a four-figure sum for Lifeboat Week.

He is now planning a much bigger festival for next summer at the other end of the seafront.

Lyme Regis RNLI issued a statement saying they were “bitterly disappointed” that the festival had been cancelled.

The statement said: “This is a most unfortunate chain of events leading to the cancellation of a cookery demonstration which we believe would have raised substantial funds for the RNLI charity.

“Mr Hix is a long-standing supporter of the RNLI and we were very much looking forward to him taking part in our Lifeboat Week.

“His appearance would have been a major attraction, and his absence will doubtless result in a reduction in donations during the week.”

Town trader Justin Tunstall of the Town Mill Cheesemonger, said it’s ‘a great pity’ that the food festival isn’t going ahead.

“It’s a shame a solution couldn’t be arrived at and it’s a shame the RNLI will be missing out on the funds,” he said.

Cobb Arms landlord John McClements said he didn’t wish to comment.