TOWN councillors quizzed the organiser of a joint food and music festival which will be held in Cockermouth next month.

Taste Cumbria and Northbound will be held on the weekend of September 27 to 29.

The main food festival will be on Main Street and Market Place, Memorial Gardens will host the Northbound stage, hot food, bar tent and children's activities.

Anna Chippendale, the events manager at Allerdale Council, met with councillors to discuss using Memorial Gardens, which is owned by the town council.

She spoke about security, noise, weather contingency plans, land reinstatement and recycling.

Some raised concerns about land at Memorial Gardens being damaged.

Mrs Chippendale reassured them the land would be reinstated and if the weather was bad in the run up to the event, it would be moved to Wakefield Road car park.

Councillors had previously raised concerns about people drinking near the river. There will be security patrolling the area, barriers and lights, said Mrs Chippendale.

She said they were working on a sustainability policy and were going to ask stall holders not to use single-use plastics.

Councillors pointed out that the older residents living nearby may be affected by the music, which was set to play until 9pm.

"We have a noise management policy and there will be monitoring. We can always stop the music at 8pm and let the bar run until 9pm," said Mrs Chippendale.

Mayor Julie Laidlow said: "Northbound is predominantly a street festival and would generate far more footfall than Taste Cumbria, why do you want to put it in Memorial Gardens rather than Main Street? I think this would benefit businesses more."

Mrs Chippendale said: "Taste Cumbria would not fit on Wakefield Road if we had to move it there because of bad weather.

"The majority feeling is that Northbound is good for the night time economy."

Councillor Richard Watson asked if the bar tent could close at 8pm to encourage people to head into town.

"We can think about that," said Mrs Chippendale.

She said they had offered to pay for bands in pubs. "The feedback has been very positive, there's been no negativity so far," she said.

"Market Place is particularly happy as they will be hosting a street party."

The councillors voted to approve the use of their gardens.