The company hoping to bring international opera star Andrea Bocelli to Oxford's Kassam Stadium next month claims it will lose thousands of pounds staging the event.

The Kassam Stadium

Confusion still surrounds whether the concert, which is scheduled for Saturday, April 30, will take place because the city council is not yet satisfied all the necessary details are in place.

The Town Hall claims the promoters need planning permission for the concert but the Very Impressive Party Company -- the firm organising the event -- maintains none is required.

Meanwhile, the promoters have forked out £12,000 hiring a specialist firm of consultants after council officers said they were not satisfied plans were in place to cater for the vast volume of traffic expected around the Blackbird Leys venue.

Around 5,500 people visit the Kassam Stadium when Oxford United play but as many as 12,000 could turn up to see Bocelli and the British Philharmonic Orchestra.

However, the city council is concerned that no firm plans are yet in place to show how the roads around the stadium and public transport cope with these numbers. Today, (Weds, March 30) a crunch meeting between officials from the Very Impressive Party Company, Oxford United Football Club, the Football League, police, fire and ambulance services and the city council will thrash out safety details. A final decision on whether the concert goes ahead will be taken on Monday (April 5) by the city council's south east area committee.

Mike Dandridge of the Very Impressive Party Company, said: "We have lost 3,000 tickets because people in Oxford think the concert is in doubt -- I mean, would you buy one if you heard someone say the concert is in doubt?

"Never in our lives have we had this much trouble before -- Oxford City Council is a unique beast -- and even a blind man and a pack of wild horses would be able to see there are no issues here."

To date 4,500 tickets have been sold at prices ranging from £45 to £85 but Mr Dandridge hopes at least 8,000 go before April 30.

Before the event was promoted it was hoped as many as 13,000 people would turn up due to the popularity of Bocelli, who has sold more records than Elvis Presley and performed for royalty.

Gill Sanders, chairman of the south east area committee, added: "I really don't think the city council has been uncooperative.

"Planning officers have tried to work with the promoters and put forward details of how an event of this kind will be handled. Our responsibility has to be to the people who live next to the stadium. Personally if I was promoting an event of this size I would make sure I had a professional team working on it."