IT was nice to read in the paper that Cowley Road Carnival is off again. It would have been good, as a Cowley Road traders to have been notified by the organisers, but was no surprise really, as they’ve managed to mess it up most years.

Even when it has gone on, it’s been really badly organised with little or no communication until the last minute.

From what I hear the cancellation is due to lack of funding. Well, if they are so naive as to think they can raise money from local traders who are fighting a losing battle to stay in business, there’s no-one to blame other than themselves.

Businesses have been slammed so hard by local rate hikes and by central Government putting VAT up and giving all their support to banks and none to small businesses, that many will probably go to the wall over the next 12 months.

It would be interesting to see how much has been spent on wages and other overheads against what money has been raised by organisers.

Last year’s event in the park on the Saturday must have lost money. It is good to see this year’s line up is decent and that tickets have been put on sale more than two weeks before the event.

Next time organisers should try to collect money from us in reasonable time, unlike last year.

If the carnival is ever going to take root properly as a respected annual event, funding for it must be in place months before.

Ideally funding to close the road should be sought for two to five years at a time, so that the public and those who put in a huge amount of effort are not messed around each year.

If the event in future years does not happen on the road, please change the name. Do not call it Cowley Road Carnival; it’s insulting.

Mon Barbour, Cowley Road, Oxford