A PLANNED Parklife summer festival in Gillingham Park is set to be scrapped because of safety fears. Medway Council is almost certain to withdraw its £12,000 funding after officers reported crowd control problems at previous events and found it would be difficult to tighten security at the park.

Cllr Les Wicks, the cabinet's leisure, culture and countryside portfolio holder, has decided to recommend to the cabinet that the £12,000 to pay for the festival is put towards another event, possibly at the St George's Centre in Chatham Maritime. He said in the past there had been violence towards stewards, bottles broken, and drunkenness at Parklife.

"The problem is the event became unmanageable," said Mr Wicks. "The officers found that in the setting of Gillingham Park it was not possible to control the crowd. What I will not do is put the stewards or anyone else at risk."

But he added: "My role is not to go around stopping things but to make them happen and there are umpteen ways we can promote local musicians without risking anyone's safety."

Cllr Wicks will raise his recommendation at the next cabinet meeting but is confident the reasons to channel the money to another event were compelling.

Medway Music has organised the event in conjunction with the council for three festivals, although the event has been going since the mid-1990s. Platinum Abba, Dave Sutherland, Lick, and Mandeva are among the acts that have appeared in the South East's largest free festival.

Jay Allen, chairman of Medway Music, said the group would protest to the council over the decision. "We are all extremely disappointed," he said. "There were more people at Parklife last year than ever and there are not that many places in Medway where an event like this can be held."