Douglas Carnival will be returning this year but with a few significant changes.

Douglas Borough Council members were divided over the decision to run the parade along Loch Promenade only, rather than the full length of the promenade as in previous years.

Andrew Bentley, lead member Regeneration and Community, says he thinks scaling-down the event could give it more impact.

He said: ‘It’s been around in the town for a long time, the real challenge is how do we make the carnival relevant to the 21st century.

‘The carnival, as many knew it, was at a time when 50,000 were on holiday in the town but today we don’t have those numbers, but we’re a very different society and it’s about using all those different community groups to get together but also to look to some of the people who have come from around the world to make Douglas their home, what can they bring to the carnival and this is about bringing everybody together.

‘We felt that it needed to come to an area that was more compact, rather than being stretched out along the whole of the promenade and I felt that when you look at the other carnivals in the island, in Castletown and Peel, people are there before the carnival and they’re there afterwards and I’ve got a suspicion that has something to do with licensed premises in the vicinity.

‘Castletown carnival goes on all night so I was very keen that it happens later on a Saturday and it can be the start of your night out. Hopefully the bars along the promenade, whether it’s 1886, Jak’s, Tiki Bar or Quids Inn, I hope they all really get involved in this and we have a party on that bit.’

He added: ‘Part of the reason as well is it hasn’t got all of the access required and that was a big logistical problem for the officers in the previous years.

‘There’s a few details that need to be looked at but it would be nice if we had more bands walking along. It’s going to be a wonderful spectacle of the Manx summer at its finest.’