FAIRS could return to Southampton Common on bank holidays - if the city council can't find any other alternative.

The council is to advertise for new operators to run events on the Common on bank holidays, after they refused to renew the licence for Coles Funfairs, arguing the entertainment had become stale and overpriced.

Instead they are asking for suggestions for all types of events, including music festivals and circuses.

The option is still there for a fair to return to the Common, however, said leisure chief Julian Price, though it may mean one operator is given just one bank holiday weekend, rather than all four.

"There is every option for Coles to come back, if they can show us they are providing quality events which will enhance life in Southampton.

"We need events that are good enough to make it worth closing our Common on bank holidays," he said.

Privately, council officials are convinced that operators will fall over themselves to use the Common - giving Coles stiff competition.

The Daily Echo revealed in April that the historic fair on the Common was under threat. The first fair open in 1859, and has con-tinued on bank holiday weekends ever since but the council argued declining audiences showed the fairground attractions were losing their popularity.

The Power in the Park organisers, Power FM, are also considering moving their music festival back to its traditional bank holiday slot.

Fairgoer Heather Longley, from Bitterne Manor, has spearheaded a campaign to try and save the fair. She doesn't object to other events on the Common, but she said: "If the council only allow the fair to come in once a year it will lose its audience. People come to it without bothering to look for advertisements, because they always come to the fair at bank holidays."

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