CARNIVAL organisers have issued a plea for cash to make sure at least part of this year's event is still focused on Cowley Road.

The committee behind the carnival, due to be staged on Sunday, July 3, have already been told a 40-week scheme to repair Iffley Road is likely to make it impossible to close Cowley Road.

Instead, celebrations will move to nearby South Park with the parades of dancers and marching bands performing.

Now organisers and traders along the East Oxford street have appealed for £15,000 of donations to make sure the festival, which attracts more than 30,000 people, still has a presence on the road.

Last year’s event cost £100,000.

John Hole, chairman of organising charity Cowley Road Works, said: “The carnival brings a lot of trade to the road.

“If the road is not closed it will be just another weekend for the shops and cafes."

He said even if the main carnival this year was not held in the road, fringe events could still happen in the shops, bars, pubs and open spaces along the street.

In 2009, the event switched solely to South Park, followed by a joint park and road event last summer.

On Friday, Oxfordshire County Council claimed it was unable to support a Cowley Road closure in 2011 because of the £2.5m Iffley Road rejuvenation project, beginning in May.

The council said there would be too great an impact on traffic and access issues would affect police, fire and ambulance response times.

If the road is not closed, events will be hosted in bars and cafes down the street, in the Manzil Way Gardens, and the procession will take place in South Park.

Euton Daley, of Cowley Road Works, added: “Businesses along the road tell us this is easily the busiest day of the year."

Mr Hole said it was not a ‘done deal’ that the road would not be closed, but said the committee was preparing for the worst.

He said: “If the road is not closed we will have to change the event quite considerably.

“We will still have the fiesta in the park.”

Oxfordshire County Council said it was working with the festival organisers to find a solution which will enable the carnival to go ahead despite the work in Iffley Road.

A final decision will be taken in the next few weeks.