PLANS for a new alternative music and arts festival in Marlborough for 2018 are being made, spearheaded by a trio of people who have been stepped down from the town's jazz festival.

In September, the entire jazz festival committee resigned from their roles due to irreconcilable differences with the organisers, who are in an ongoing dispute over road closures for the festival in 2017.

Now former committee members Robin Pritchard, Alan Giddings and Richard Bailey are planning on throwing MarlboroughFEST in the High Street in the summer of 2018, aiming to create a more inclusive, family-friendly festival celebrating jazz, blues, folk, rock and world music.

Discussions are already taking place with local retailers, pubs, traders and restaurants, among others, to get their backing. This will be followed by talking to local people, schools, the town council and Wiltshire Council – who will be asked to authorise road closures.

"This is a hugely exciting opportunity to give the town a major new festival that it deserves and one that is a more inclusive festival that has a more collaborative relationship with the whole community," said Mr Pritchard, who has been in the events business for 25 years.

"We want to embrace more forms of music, introduce a more arty element and have something that is not tucked away and is in plain sight in the High Street.

"There is no acrimony between us and the Marlborough Arts Festival, who effectively run the festival, we just had too many areas where we could not agree on things so we stepped down.

"So far the response to this has been very positive and enthusiastic. We know it will be difficult to sort out road closures but we are very eager to get working with Wiltshire Council, the town council, residents and businesses to come to a solution in a less adversarial way.

"We may have to compromise on some things but we are prepared for that."

They intend their festival to include street theatre, mini-festivals of food and drink, pop-up shops and arts events as well as music.

"We will form a committee soon. We will apply for grants and look to get sponsors and funding, which will be difficult but we are extremely confident we can achieve our goal," added Mr Pritchard.

"There is a whole list of things we have to do and others we do not know about that we need to do, so that is why we want it for 2018 to give us time and give people a fair chance of doing a good job.

"The jazz festival has been a fantastic event for over 30 years and I hope that can get sorted. I would like to think this is a continuation of it. We feel very strongly this is the direction it should go."

The trio intend that the new festival will be run by a non-profit making company involving local residents.