THE man behind a second Lapland theme park that shut down at the weekend is from Southamp-ton, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Jimmy James admitted he had taken the idea for his West Midlands attraction from the infamous Lapland New Forest event dubbed the “Winter Blunderland”, which closed last Thursday after a blizzard of more than 2,000 complaints.

Families turning up to the opening of the Staffordshire theme park, near Wolver-hampton, were similarly expecting Father Christmas, elves, huskies, reindeer, ice skating and snow.

But on Saturday they were met by empty marquees, a muddy field and trading standards officers, who said they had discovered that the organisers of both events had addresses in the same road in Christchurch, Dorset.

Mr James, who lives in Southampton, has said he was “inspired” by the Dorset event after his brother Matthew mentioned it to him.

But Matthew James, who owns Tall Trees caravan park in Matchams Lane, on the same road as Lapland New Forest, insisted there was no link between the events.

“What they are trying to do is link my brother with Lapland New Forest because I own Tall Trees but they are barking up the wrong tree,” he said.

Jimmy James’s solicitor Sandro Placidi said he understood Jimmy was the organiser of the Staffordshire event and that, apart from the similar names, there was no connection between the two events.

Lapland West Midlands’ website blamed poor ticket sales due to bad publicity for the closure and promised full refunds.

Trading standards had expressed “serious concerns” about whether the event could deliver the attractions promised on its website.

Carol Dean, from Staffordshire County Council’s ruling Cabinet, said yesterday: “Thankfully very few paying customers came to Lapland West Midlands on Saturday. We have no way of knowing how many people bought tickets and were either put off attending by the volume of publicity or took one look at the site and decided to drive off.”

Dorset County Council yesterday said it could not comment further on last week’s statement that it wanted to take legal action against Lapland New Forest for “misleading” people.

Parents said they had been tricked into taking their children to an event that failed to match up to its billing and was described as a glorified car boot sale.

Thousands of families who had booked tickets right up to Christmas Eve have been left out of pocket.