A drive to lessen the impact of a huge Muslim convention on roads around Bordon, Kingsley and East Hampshire has been hailed a massive success.

This year’s Jalsa Salana was the biggest yet with the three-day event near East Worldham attracting more than 43,000 worshippers from around the world.

But although there were some complaints about the extra traffic on lanes around Blacknest, Oakhanger and Blackmoor, there was no repeat of the congestion chaos that marred last year’s event.

Some neighbours even thought the Ahmadiyya showpiece wasn’t a success because of the negligible impact on the roads, even thought it was the biggest and most successful Jalsa to date.

“We had an external liaison group and we constantly liaised with all the councils, highways, police and we did dummy runs to make sure everything ran smoothly,” said Cllr Adeel Shah in claiming lessons had been learned.

People in the area were also given nearly-hourly updates on when to expect congestion in a smooth operation.