AN online petition has been set up in a bid to raise a 1,000 signatures by Tuesday, to help save the threatened Party in the Park.

The popular two day live music and family fun event held over the August Bank Holiday needs a premises licence from Borough of Poole, which is being opposed by two residents and a council department on the grounds of noise, antisocial behaviour and litter.

If the licence is not granted when it goes before the council's licensing sub-committee on Tuesday at the Civic Centre at 5.30pm, organiser Jane Jones says the axe will have fallen on the event.

Now she and her team are fighting back with an online petition under the heading "Is Poole a No Fun Zone? Have your say on Party in the Park".

" I am so desperately disappointed with the worrying situation concerning our licence for the 15th Party in the Park," she said.

"A department within Poole Council have objected to the licence. It will be a tragedy if this community event, which supports a different charity every year, this year being Streetwise, gets pulled.

"Both myself and my team have put in so much effort since last year’s event as we never thought for one minute that it might not go ahead."

She urged people to show their support by signing the online petition, which will be presented to Poole Council at the meeting. It went live at 9am on Friday and within a couple of hours had attracted well over 300 signatures.

Ms Jones added: "I have been overwhelmed with the massive support I have received since the article about the possibly defunct Party in the Park appeared in Thursday’s Echo, both from private individuals and professional bodies such as the Traders Association and the Poole Chamber of Commerce to name a couple. This prompted me and my team to run this petition which is proving hugely successful”.

Supportive online comments include from Andrew Courtenay: "I live yards away from the green. This is a fantastic social occasion, meeting friends new and old. The first date in my diary every year. Please don't stop it."

To sign the petition go to http://bit.ly/1JntrVJ.