HASLEMERE'S Remembrance Day parade and two-minute silence is set to be scaled down, to ensure the event runs smoothly and is more manageable.
In a break with tradition, only one side of the High Street will be closed to traffic and the parade will disband in the High Street rather than march to the car park.
Town councillors heard of the proposed changes to the event at a meeting of its finance and general purposes committee last week.
It followed a meeting by representatives from the town council, police, Royal British Legion and other interested parties who sat round the table to iron out last year's traffic problems, blamed on a breakdown in communications and lack of organisation.
Problems occurred when only one side of the High Street was closed to traffic. Police were forced to move in to stop northbound traffic using the road because of fears for public safety, as crowds gathered for the Remembrance Day parade and service.
In future, only the south side of the High Street will be closed to traffic. Traffic will still flow in a northbound direction and round the town hall and motorists will be asked to use their discretion during the service.
Town councillors were told in a report to the meeting that "a wider area road-closure order would be costly".
"The logistics of achieving this are unwarranted when considering a ceremony that lasts only 30 minutes," said the report.
Haslemere mayor Fay Foster told the meeting that the new arrangements were: "The best we could do."
In future, the police, British Legion and the town council will all share responsibility for the event with each organisation taking on separate roles.
"We will just have to rely on people's goodwill and emotions surrounding the event," Haslemere police sergeant Richard Downs told The Herald before the meeting.
Road closure orders, which are now expected to be undertaken by the town council, will follow exactly the same format as controls set in place for the town's Christmas carols.
Sergeant Downs said that the police would continue to have a presence in the proceedings, as usual leading the procession from St Bartholomew's Church to West Street and into the High Street.
"Faced with the problem of closing the whole of the High Street and an obligation to divert traffic all around the town, the problem could have become bigger than what we are trying to achieve," said Sgt Downs.
Referring to the Remembrance Day service organisation in previous years Sgt Downs said: "It rapidly came to everybody's notice, that the Remembrance Day service in Haslemere just seemed to happen with no single body taking on the organisational role."
He said the latest proposals would lead to a more "satisfactory result for the community."