The new Road Traffic Act, which came into force in April, shifted the responsibility for traffic management from the police to the organisers of the event.

Event organisers, Wisbech Round Table, were stopped in their tracks by the prohibitive cost associated with this new responsibility.

The estimated £3,000 bill for developing and presenting a traffic management plan for the county council highways authority to approve was more than the parade raised for charity last year.

When Fenland Council heard about the predicament facing the Rose Fair carnival parade organisers, councillors stepped in to underwrite the traffic management costs.

The council has come to the rescue on this occasion, but in subsequent years the traffic management costs of all such events will have to become part of every organisation's community grant bid.

A council spokesman said: "Wisbech Rose Fair has been the highlight of the Wisbech calendar for more than 40 years and it would have been unthinkable for the carnival parade to come to an end because of the unintentional consequences of new legislation.

"More than 15,000 people come to see the colourful fund-raising spectacle, with coaches full of tourists pouring into Wisbech from all over the country."

This year's Rose Fair carnival parade is expected to have more than 30 decorated floats created by local organisations, businesses and schools, as well as marching bands and vintage vehicles.

The theme this year is Famous Authors and Books. Money for charity is collected in the streets as the floats travel twice round the town.