EXCITING plans for a Northern Proms concert in York during Royal Ascot week have been scrapped, the Evening Press can confirm today.

But the all-star event - originally due to feature top acts like X Factor pin-ups G4 and Welsh songbird Katherine Jenkins on June 15 - could still wow music fans later this summer.

Despite last-ditch talks with traffic cops, organiser Don Robinson was forced to pull the plug on the £100,000-plus extravaganza amid police concerns over traffic gridlock.

Senior officers told how the city could grind to a halt if the Proms-style concert was held at York City's Kit Kat Crescent during Royal Ascot in June.

Chief Inspector Andy Bell today repeated that warning. He said: "In the interests of safety, we believe this is the right decision.

"We will have upwards of 60,000 people coming from the racecourse on that day - that's a massive amount that will take many hours to clear."

"The police have a hard task at Royal Ascot, and they thought that to bring in another 8,000 people for this would have caused traffic jams," he said.

Mr Robinson said he did not want to add to the police's problems and accepted they had valid reasons for objecting, although he predicted most of the crowds attending the flag-waving event would have been staying in York and not travelling in by car.

He added: "I'm very disappointed. I've been on this since November. I've never worked on anything so hard in recent years. But if we are going to do it, we will do it right."

Mr Robinson confirmed he was now looking at a possible date in July or August to reschedule the show.

He thanked York City FC and City of York Council for their help.

Updated: 10:14 Friday, March 18, 2005