PLANS to show England's World Cup games on giant screens in Basingstoke have been abandoned after they failed to gain public support.

The idea to show England's matches in the War Memorial Park was floated by Labour members of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and they invited comments from the public to assess the level of support.

However, only nine people responded - and all of their comments were negative. So the project has been shelved.

Councillor David Potter, Labour group leader, said: "There were not many responses and, to be frank, what there has been was pretty hostile.

"People were concerned about the cost and other aspects including public safety. I'm a bit disappointed that we haven't had the sort of support or uptake that we thought we would."

Big screen football could still make an appearance in Basingstoke in the future and Cllr Potter believes more planning could help to resolve public concerns.

He said: "Some people have said to me that we are a bit late to be planning this now, but the idea is good. What we will do now is investigate it fully so we have better organisational structures and costs in place. We would then be able to do things a lot more easily because there are a lot of advantages to forward planning."

First published: April 26, 2006