Local councillors made it clear at their monthly meeting on Monday evening that infighting within the group about the location of the amusements, which has been escalating since last October, must be brought to a swift end.
The meeting heard that ill-feeling between certain sections of the committee, and within the town in general, over the issue has led to verbal abuse, calls for people to boycott shops, intimidation, and even threats of violence.
The council, which has no corporate responsibility for activities at the fair, provides around £50,000 in funding for the annual festival. And several councillors made it clear that that funding could be withdrawn if the ongoing row isn't resolved.
Following a meeting of the key players in the dispute at Mossley Mill last Tuesday, it seemed a compromise may have been reached. However, opinions differed significantly on exactly what had been agreed during the talks and tensions were running high when the group gathered again for an emergency meeting at Ballyclare Community Concerns last Thursday.
That meeting was abandoned just when it looked as though a vote on the siting of the amusements might be taken. And later, amid claims of threats and intimidation from protestors, several committee members, including Chairperson Etta Mann, councillor Jackie Mann and councillor John Scott resigned their posts.
"It got very heated on Thursday night. People were verbally abused and business owners were warned that their shops would be boycotted. Some of these people are using bully tactics to get their own way," one source told the Times.
The protestors, who are fighting moves to replace the traditional amusements at The Square with a three-day continental market, took their campaign to the council's monthly meeting on Monday evening.
They lobbied councillors as they entered Mossley Mill and later sat quietly at the back of the chamber as members discussed the May Fair issue.
Councillor John Scott proposed that the entire committee should be "stood down" and a new one formed for next year. He added that the council should withdraw this year's £50,000 funding allocation for the event.
That proposal was backed by his party colleague Jim Bingham, who claimed that members of the town's Chamber of Trade have been threatened over the fair controversy and one young man was told that he would be "sorted out" for his standpoint on the issue.
While describing events within the committee as "unseemly and extremely regrettable", councillor Tom Campbell argued that councillor Scott's proposal went too far.
Warning however, that the council's patience is becoming stretched, he added: "The council might take such radical surgery if people don't come together and if they don't forge a compromise and work together."
That sentiment was later echoed by councillor Billy Webb, who stressed that the council should tell the Steering Group to get things sorted out or risk losing funding for the event.
Alderman Paul Girvan said it was important to move the issue forward and proposed that the dispute over the siting of the amusements and continental market be referred back to the committee to be discussed at a meeting led by an independent chairperson.
That proposal, along with a call to the committee members to resolve their differences, won the backing of the vast majority of councillors.
The Times understands that a member of the clergy from a local church may be asked to act as the independent chairperson.
At the time of going to print no date for the meeting had yet been confirmed.