Ashby de la Zouch Town Council says a number of their planned events scheduled for the remainder of the year face being cancelled - or have been called off already.

This includes Jim's 10th Anniversary Tractor Run, which had been re-arranged for next month and will not now go ahead, and Ashby Christmas Fair, scheduled for December 5 and 6 - which also has a knock-on effect for the Carols Around The Christmas Tree event, due to take place on December 24, and the Santa Fun Run, on December 6.

There are also question marks over other events including next month's Ashby Statutes and the Remembrance Sunday Parade.

It was suggested they could possibly go ahead in a different form, but the annual staging of the Statutes looks unlikely.

There could be a compromise however with the market aspect of the scheduled Christmas Fair event and Monday night's meeting of the Events and Entertainment Committee agreed to look into that.

But the continued threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic means that the council is wary of going ahead with planned events.

Localised spikes of Covid-19 have become more obvious in recent weeks and the committee was made fully aware of the risks involved.

However, the council has allowed the organisers of the StrEAT Food Social event which is being held on the Bath Grounds on August 22.

The committee discussed the Tractor Run which had been re-scheduled for September 6.

It was to have been the 10th anniversary event of the Grand Tractor display which finishes at the Bath Grounds.

Town Centre manager Stuart Benson told the committee: "I've done a risk assessment for this and I don't think we could fence it off without it costing us a lot of money.

"As a council, we can't afford to be spending more money on events."

Cllr Geraint Jones added: "It would be nice to have something going as we're ripping the heart out of everything we're doing. But circumstances dictate."

Cllr Graham Allman said: "It would be a crying shame to lose it for a second year."

Cllr Barbara Kneale added: "The tractors going on to a field don't fill me with any dread, it's more if there are stalls and a circus. But I'm not happy about a circus and how are the performers going to socially distance?"

But Town Clerk, Jack Fargher, said: "I know the Tractor Run is a great event. But as a council we have to stand back. An event that's going to run for a few hours could potentially have a wider impact on the town.

"If we go to lockdown and businesses have to close down, that's going to be disastrous PR, for the council and the town.

"We should ask ourselves if it's a risk worth taking considering the situation in Leicester and around the country.

"An event that lasts a few hours could have a lasting impact on the town which we could all regret in the long term."

The Town Clerk also pointed out that the difference between other town council events being cancelled and the StrEAT Social is that this is considered to be a market.

Stuart Benson added: "The event organiser has done a Covid risk assessment and put a lot of safety measures in place such as hand sanitiser, extra washing facilities and extra toilets.

"We're happy with the level of detail they have provided.

"They thought it was better to open up the site so people can move around the site more easily and not be trapped in one place.

"They were going to charge people admission, but that's not happening now."

Concerns were raised over the amount of people going to one location at one time, particularly as it will be held in an open area.

Councillor Andreas Ioannou-Nikou said: "You could affect the whole of Ashby in one event and we should have some control over it.

"I would have a system of one person in, and one person out. The local pubs are doing this, we expect them to have a certain amount of people inside.

"Now we're contradicting that for a major event. For me, here's no safety here. It's a massive event with food and drink, it should be controlled better."

Cllr Kneale added: "We do have some duty of care as we're letting them use our land.

"How are we going to manage social distancing. People probably won't be wearing masks as it's an outside event. This is like a market, we should stipulate the distance between stalls."

The committee was told that the organisers are aiming for five or six metres between each individual stall.

Cllr Allman added: "If they are compliant and we are satisfied they are compliant, it can only be a good thing for the town to get things going again."