I was glad that the Oxford Mail commended Erica Steinhauer for all the work she put in to keeping an element of the Cowley Road Carnival alive.

We were told that the road closure would cost £30,000. One of the last things Craig Simmons did as county councillor was to persuade the county council to put £15,000 towards the cost of the carnival, conditional on match-funding from the city.

Green East Area councillors asked the Executive to agree the match-funding but they would only give £7,500. The East Area Committee had to give the remaining £7,500 from their already tight budget to make up the shortfall.

That was because we believe the carnival to be a very special community event.

I wanted there to be, at least, a colourful procession, as usual, along part of Cowley Road. This could have been done without the need for a street closure. But the organisers were adamant that this would be too risky and refused to include it.

As it was, the carnival was successful as a sort of glorified Fun in the Park event, and many people enjoyed it as such. But it wasn’t memorable like previous carnivals, with stilt walkers, mime and magic as well as the colourful multi-cultural processions that we are used to.

I know most people want a return to the glorious community event that was started with East Oxford regeneration money.

I hope the organisers will set aside the £30,000 that the county, city and area parliament donated, to enable the road to be closed and a full event to be held next year.

Nuala Young, Oxford City Councillor