PRESSURE is growing on the organisers of Oxford’s biggest public event to make guarantees that it will return to the Cowley Road this summer.

The city’s east area parliament has pledged £7,500 to the annual bash — but only on the proviso that Cowley Road is closed for one day of a proposed two-day event.

Last year the carnival, which attracts about 30,000 revellers, was moved to South Park, while this year organisers have proposed an event split across both sites, without providing guarantees of where the procession will be held.

Traders on Oxford’s most colourful street fear that if organisers do not raise the £150,000 they need, the street procession will be cancelled in favour of a cheaper event in the park.

Last year Erica Steinhauer, of the Plain Traders Association, organised a Cowley Road Carnival Fringe event supported by more than 30 businesses to make up for the loss of the event. She said: “We want a carnival back on the Cowley Road and – if there’s money left over – then the park.

“We want a personal guarantee that all the energy we generated with the fringe will go into the carnival.”

Carnival organisers have asked Cowley Road businesses to contribute £25,000 to the cost of this year’s event.

They also hope to raise a further £25,000 by holding a ticket-entry music event in South Park the night before the Saturday, July 3, carnival.

Jan Anderson, who runs the Hi Lo Jamaican Eating House, said: “Businesses on the Cowley Road are struggling.

“We are willing to give contributions but only if there’s going to be an event on the Cowley Road.”

City councillor Nuala Young, chairman of the east area parliament said: “I like the idea of a two- day event, but the main focus should be on the road. The businesses on the Cowley Road need all the help they can get at the moment.”

Junie Jones, a trustee of the charity behind the carnival, pointed out that Leeds’s West Indian Carnival started and finished in Potternewton Park while Birmingham’s ran from Handsworth Park to Perry Park.

She called for traders to be patient until they heard the outcome of the carnival’s largest grant application for £50,000 from the Arts Council, at the end of March.

She said: “We recognise the Cowley Road traders want it back on the road.

“At the moment we’re not in a position to give a guarantee because we’re still raising funding.

“It really does require the traders to be patient and to wait and see the outcome.

“It’s realistic we can raise the money and I’m optimistic we will.”