MARLBOROUGH’S internationally renowned jazz festival may have been handed a lifeline after Wiltshire Council agreed to meet organisers concerned about the event’s safety.

For many months, the jazz festival organisers have been in dispute with Wiltshire Council over their refusal to allow all-day road closures in the High Street this year and next.

Organisers have threatened to cancel next year’s festival, due to be held in July, as they claim people’s lives are at risk if the roads are not closed all day.

However, the situation may yet be salvaged as Coun Phillip Whitehead, Wiltshire Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, will meet Marlborough Arts Association members and town councillors on Tuesday at County Hall, Trowbridge on Tuesday.

Coun Nick Fogg said: “Unless we get street closures it is pretty hard to see it going ahead as we have a moral duty and responsibility to keep people safe and that is not certain when road closures are not in place. They have rejected the evidence we put forward to them before.

“It is up to Wiltshire Council really. It depends on what they have to say. They requested the meeting so maybe something can come from it.

“They are losing the only event in the county that has international recognition.”. The backlash they got from this on social media was huge so maybe that has been a factor behind calling this meeting.

“This event funnels half a million into the local economy, which is a huge amount. Over the years some businesses have kept going because of the festival.

“We are two months behind schedule already as we usually start the preparations for this huge event in September, so if it does go ahead it will be a tour de force to organise it.”

The festival, which had been allowed to close the main road through the town to traffic all day for 20 years, had its all-day closure application rejected by Wiltshire Council this year, with the council suggesting a road closure only from 5pm on Saturday, July 16 instead of from 10am.

The closure was rejected because the council was responding to feedback from businesses in the town about the impact an all-day closure had on trade.

Arts association member Gordon Olson said: “There is a serious issue with public safety here, if road closures are not put in place.”

“The good thing is that they have asked for a dialogue and we think that is positive. We hope they address these issues and keep this great event going in the future.”

Mr Fogg added that the trustees of the festival are trying to come up with events that are not dependent on the road closures for public safety.