TOWN councillors in Oswestry have voted to downgrade potential plans for a return for 'Party in the Park' to a smaller event at a meeting this week.

Last autumn, a proposal was put forward to Oswestry Town Council, as Councillor Jay Moore was joined by former mayor, Cllr Paul Milner, for an all-day event.

However, at the Markets and Town Centre meeting, held at the Guildhall on Wednesday, councillors were lukewarm to the idea, with many stating concerns about a suitable amount of planning time for an event next June.

Councillors were presented with a report from town centre manager David Clough, who provided positives and negatives for consideration, but town clerk Arren Roberts told attendees – which did not include Cllrs Moore and Milner – that there would be obstacles to hosting such an event.

He said: "Delivering a full scale event in June would be difficult.

"I've had informal conversations with West Mercia Police, from their previous experience, they would create increased stipulations which aren’t factored into a budget.

"There is no current provision in the budget for this event as it was brought too late."

Cllr Chris Schofield added: "We’re a small council and this is stretching our resources to the limit."

Mayor-elect Cllr Duncan Kerr also poured cold water on a bigger event, but he did believe a compromise could be sought.

He said: "I agree with Cllr Schofield – we can’t do this half-hearted.

"We do have some Sunday events in the parks and someone suggested that we extended that into a lazy Sunday with more music and stallholders.

"It’s a different atmosphere. Let's have this lazy Sunday, see how it works and then build towards a budget for a larger event."

Mr Roberts confirmed this was a viable option for councillors and all were in favour of investigating a smaller event further.