An emergency meeting has been called after police, ambulance and the council's environmental health team raised serious concerns over a week of activities planned for the run-up to Christmas.

The local safety advisory group is worried that squeezing the charter market, farmers market and an ice rink into the Market Place on Friday December 22 will create unacceptable risks to the public. In particular, the NHS has said resources will be too stretched with dealing with drink-related injuries for paramedics to be treating ice-skating related injuries, especially as the ice rink is open until 10pm.

At a safety meeting last week, the consenus was to cancel the ice rink or move it elsewhere, and West Berkshire Council must now decide whether to run the risk or to relocate the ice rink. Ironically, it was the council's decision to go against local opinion and force the market traders to leave Northbrook Street that has created the current problem.

The Market Place has been plagued by a series of blunders since the £830,000 project completed two weeks ago. Newbury.net revealed that the taxi rank was moved by police for road safety reasons, and then it emerged that the council's daytime car ban in the Market Place and Wharf Street is illegal, and doesn't come into effect until this Friday. Last Saturday, a woman suffered cuts after tripping over an electricity point in the Market Place, and was treated at the Corn Exchange.