BLACKBURN'S leisure chief has pledged 'wholesale changes' to the way the town's annual Mela event is run following Traffic chaos at this year's event.

Coun Dorothy Walsh revealed that 'lessons had been learnt' following the event in July, which was held at Witton Park for the first time.

Blackburn with Darwen Council received dozens of complaints from residents in the Witton area, mainly about traffic problems around the site.

It was claimed people attending the event cut across grass verges to try and beat queues which had been caused by people parking on roads which had been coned off.

Others complained that revellers had used doorways as toilets as well.

Coun Walsh was tackled about the problems at the event during a meeting of the full council.

She said: "This was the first time we had held the event at Witton Park and it attracted 30,000 people, which I think is tremendous.

"There are issues we have looked at with regards to the event and there will be some wholesale changes next year, but they are still at an early stage so I cannot discuss them.

"Traffic flow is something we are looking at but I think this is an event which the whole borough can be proud of, bringing in as many people as it did.

"It may well be that things are done in a different format next year, but I can't say yet."

The previous weekend's Arts In The Park event did not suffer any of the same problems, local councillor Brian Gordon said.

"I am only a relatively new councillor, and had a quiet introduction to the role until the Mela weekend.

"The phone rang off the hook all weekend with people complaining about parking, people using short cuts, going across grass verges and generally not behaving very well.

"I don't think it bodes well for community cohesion and I think the council has a responsibility to ensure that there is not a repeat of this at the event next year."