A policy proposed to charge a fee for buskers in Kamloops has been shot down at city council.

Councillors voted 5-4 to defeat a motion that asked for staff to create a draft policy to regulate street performers.

Mayor Ken Christian voted in favour of a draft policy which he says would’ve tried to separate panhandling and busking.

“The idea here is that we would create space for street performers in Kamloops. It comes out of our involvement with the Buskers Festival, and the notion that when those people come to Kamloops they would like to have some kind of system where they could continue to play.”

Christian says there was controversy that the policy would’ve been a cash grab from panhandlers.

“That’s not what it is. It was intended to create space for street performers to ply their trade, and it would also make our streets more interesting in terms of having some vibrancy and an arts and culture scene in particular the downtown areas of the Tranquille corridor and downtown Kamloops,” he says.

“We’ll just wait and see if the panhandling issue and the street performing issue becomes somethine we need to deal with. Other communities have done so, but there doesn’t seem to be a will to do so here right now.”

In the meantime, the second-annual Internation Buskers Festival at Riverside Park in Kamloops takes place from July 25 to 28.