THIS year’s Cowley Road Carnival has been cancelled, we can reveal today.

Last year Oxfordshire’s biggest free public event attracted about 35,000 people, but organisers East Oxford Action Charity said there will be no event in Oxford’s Cowley Road in July.

A smaller carnival in South Park has been planned instead.

Mum-of-two Su Frizzell, of Radcliffe Road, who has been involved with the carnival since it was first held in 2002, said: “I think it’s a real shame.

“The magic of transforming a road which is normally filled with cars into a space full of people is what makes it special and while that doesn’t mean people won’t have fun anywhere else, it won’t be the same.

“I want Cowley Road Carnival back on the Cowley Road – it will not have the same spirit elsewhere because it’s an undeniably special road.”

She will still be working with Larkrise Primary School to create costumes for a procession in the park.

Details of the event in South Park on Sunday, July 5, are still being worked on.

Co-ordinator Danielle Battigelli said: “Initial seed funding has been secured from the city council and other funding applications are in process.

“But with very limited resources currently available, it does mean that it would not be possible or safe for the charity to put on a carnival on Cowley Road this year.”

A spokesman for Oxford City Council said it had given £7,500 for this year’s event.

It is planned to have a carnival on Cowley Road in 2010.

The 2008 carnival cost £200,000 to put on, with funding coming from the city council, a one-off £75,000 grant from Arts Council England and sponsorship from several sources, with BMW as the main sponsor.

Aziz-Ur Rahman, who runs the Aziz Restaurant in the Cowley Road, said: “I’m absolutely disappointed. We have tried so hard to make it a success, going from a quiet festival then really kicking off and becoming a huge event for the whole community.

“We always thought it would be here to stay.”

It was estimated last year’s record event netted £350,000 for local businesses.

Zoe Brooks was chief executive of East Oxford Action, the organisation originally behind the carnival, which is winding up this month.

She said: “Any new organisation has to get everything in place before it can move forwards and the fact this has coincided with the city council slashing its grants and the recession hasn’t exactly gone in the carnival’s favour. What is needed is to focus on 2010 and get everything really going for that.”