The organisers of Keswick's annual Christian convention have pledged to work with businesses after traders accused the event of killing their businesses.

Angry traders packed a town council meeting earlier this month after event organisers Keswick Ministries announced dates for the 2018 convention that were fully in the school summer holidays.

One business proprietor told James Devenish, business director for the charity, "Your business throttles our business."

Brian Price, of Price Walker Antiques, said the event hit his trade by 80 to 90 per cent, while Debbie Beament, of Newlands Adventure Centre and Keswick Climbing Wall, said moving the convention fully into the school holidays would put jobs as risk elsewhere in the town.

Now Keswick Ministries is inviting business representatives to a round table discussion in the first week of September.

The charity is working with Keswick Tourism Association to identify a list of representatives across affected business areas.

It hopes the discussion will help the charity better understand the impact of its dates on businesses, and help the town understand how the dates affect those attending and serving the event.

Peter Maiden, minister-at-large for Keswick Ministries, said: "We are keen to engage with the businesses who have expressed a concern about next year’s dates.

"We would like to understand from the various types of businesses whether the dates impact them or not and how they impact them.

"We would also like to raise awareness of how dates affect conventioners, speakers and our 650 volunteers all over the UK who come up to the Lake District in the summer.

"As a major tourist attraction, the Lake District, now also a World Heritage site, attracts people from all over Great Britain, including conventioners who travel far and wide to this beautiful region in the UK, not just in summer, but at other times of the year.

"It is important that we preserve the heritage of a welcoming town for Christian and non-Christian tourists in the future.

"We look forward to engaging on the issues around dates for 2018 and will be extending invitations to the round table over the next two weeks."

The 142nd Keswick Convention began on July 15 and draws to a close on Friday.

The three-week event usually starts the Saturday before English schools break up and continues for the first two weeks of the holidays.

But the 2018 event is due to begin on July 21, the day after term finishes in Cumbria and some other counties.

Mr Devenish, business director for the charity, told the town council that the dates meant the event started a week before most English schools broke up and local school holiday dates had been changed since they were set.

He added: "We have no policy to move all the weeks into the holidays.

"It is our earnest desire that, where at all possible, we continue the pattern of the first week of the convention being not yet in the holidays."