A food event planned in Emsworth this month has been cancelled because officials feared visitors could mistake it for the town's cancelled food festival.
The event, called A Taste of Emsworth, was planned for September 26 and 27, but it failed in its bid for a street trading licence from Havant Borough Council.
The event was being organised by residents who wanted a small scale one-off replacement for the Emsworth Food Festival which has been cancelled.
A statement from the organisers said: "Although Emsworth Baptist Church offered us the use of their vacant land adjacent to the church in North Street, given the circumstances, we have decided to cancel the event as there is no way HBC would give approval following the negative outcome from our meeting with them.
"The council is of the view that the event would attract too many visitors who will be disappointed that it is not like the Emsworth Food Festival, that there would be a significant risk to public safety and that we must organise a park and ride scheme.
"All this, of course, is nonsense as A Taste of Emsworth was planned to be a relatively-small village event and had been advertised and reported as such.
"We are left with the unhappy task of winding the event up and refunding the monies already paid.
"Nevertheless, the organisers take the view that it was better to have tried and not succeeded than not to have tried at all."
The aim of the event was to let the town run as normal while having around 12 stalls in the square with involvement from businesses, pubs and restaurants.
Organisers were hoping to attract between 5,000 and 10,000 visitors.
A spokesman for Havant Borough Council highlighted a number of reasons for the event not being given the licence.
The spokesman said: "We had significant concerns regard traffic congestion and pedestrian safety.
"We had concerns over the number of visitors attracted to the event expecting it to be the Emsworth Food Festival who would be dissapointed."
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The full article contains 415 words and appears in OS-Chichester Observer newspaper.
