The Tourism Minister has defended his department’s decision not to underwrite the Peel Bay Festival.

The 2008 event was cancelled earlier this week by promoter Jonathan Irving after the government refused to provide a guarantee of up to ?250,000.

However, Adrian Earnshaw says while he’s more than happy to discuss future proposals with Mr Irving, there’s clear reasons behind the decision: (audio clip)

Meanwhile, Peel Town Commissioners are unanimously supporting Mr Irving's attempts to persuade the Manx Government to offer an event guarantee to the Peel Bay Music Festival.

A recently launched on-line petition at streetheritage.com has already attracted over 650 signatures, and a statement from the commissioners criticises Mr Earnshaw for protecting his department's venue, the Villa Marina, from competition.

They say the 2007 Festival provided substantial income benefits to many businesses and this far outweighs any cost to Government for a limited event guarantee.

Speaker of the House of Keys Steve Rodan will present a motion in Tynwald next month asking the Tourism department to negotiate with Mr Irving to agree a three year business plan for the event.