ASPIRING young rock musicians had the plug pulled on an open-air performance in Minehead's Blenheim Gardens on Sunday after the town's mayor failed to secure permission to stage the event. Cllr Nick Messarra had come up with the idea of introducing additional attractions for the thousands of people who flocked to the resort for the popular Bank Holiday Blue Anchor to Minehead Raft Race. In his capacity as a West Somerset district councillor and the authority's economic development portfolio holder, he allocated £5,000 of grant aid from his budget - £3,000 of which went to the raft race organisers towards the cost of staging the hugely successful event, with the remainder was earmarked by Cllr Messarra for street trading consents and licences. In addition to arranging for street stalls along the seafront, Cllr Messarra had also asked the West Somerset Community College band to play before crowds in Blenheim Gardens. But district council officers were forced to step in and cancel the event literally as the musicians were setting up their equipment on the bandstand after it emerged that health and safety checks and risk assessments had not been carried out, no public entertainment licence granted, or even applied for, and there was no firefighting equipment on site. Council chief executive Tim Howes told the Free Press the authority was not trying to be a killjoy but could not allow the performance to go ahead. "This was not bureaucratic petty-fogging - we had no choice. "This was a youth band and absolutely paramount was the safety of those performers and the audience in Blenheim Gardens. "Cllr Messarra was informed ten days earlier of the need for the necessary permissions - we simply could not allow it to go ahead without them." A faxed copy of insurance cover was given to council officers by Cllr Messarra but only late last Friday, allowing no time for the document to be checked. Three council officers were called out to deal with the situation - community services team leader Janice Malarky, who had been closely involved from the start, corporate director Adrian Dyer and chief regeneration and development officer Bruce Lang. Mr Howes said Mr Dyer had to tell the band and the crowds that the performance was cancelled. Although the young musicians were disappointed, their manager was said to have been very understanding and told officers that he would not have allowed the band to play without the necessary permissions. Mr Howes said Cllr Messarra had been told several times over the weekend that the performance would have to be cancelled and had had a conversation with one of the officers as late as Sunday morning. Although a public entertainment licence is in place for the regular band and music sessions staged every weekend in Blenheim Gardens under the auspices of ARTlife, additional events organised outside of its remit are not covered. Cllr Messarra insisted he had only been aware of the need to arrange public liability insurance, which he had produced to officers. But he said he entirely accepted the officers' decision. "It was disappointing for the band but we had paid for the hire of their equipment and they were able to play outside the Hobby Horse Inn instead later in the evening. "There are bound to be hiccups and a few mistakes when you are trying to do something like this. "But I have already had a meeting with officers so that we can overcome any difficulties well in advance of the event next year - I don't want to get caught up in all this red tape again. "The raft race was a magnificent success and I want to help the organisers build on that." Cllr Simon Stokes, who chairs the district council's performance committee, said he would be asking for a breakdown of the £5,000 of grant aid, in particular the £2,000 allocated for licences and permissions. "Cllr Messarra is a great servant of this town as a private individual and is very good at getting things done. "But he does have a legal responsibility to obey the rules when he is acting in an official capacity. "I am concerned that people have ended up being disappointed and that perhaps money has been wasted."