Community carnival is postponed

Organisers hope to return to a July date in 2008

Bristol's St Pauls Carnival has been postponed until September because of difficulties meeting licensing requirements for the event.

Organisers said they did not have enough time to prepare given the complications of the new regulations.

Pax Nindi, artistic director, said: "This is a blow for the carnival but the rules cannot be broken. But now we have more time to prepare."

It is now scheduled to take place on Saturday 15 September.

Organisers intend to return to the carnival's usual date of July in 2008.

Guy Bailey Obe, trustee of the Black Development Agency, added: "When it started it wasn't about finance, but about people working together.

"It was done locally. That is what has eroded."

The carnival has been part of the summer scene in Bristol since the 1960s.