Councillors told Tuesday night's meeting they were also worried about show staff visiting from Sydney.

However, on Wednesday the Sydney and Forbes-based operators, The Fun Fair, said they would now work with the Orange Show Society to run an event in December or January at the Orange Showground.

The Fun Fair will be run in Bathurst over the next two weekends.

The Orange Fun Fair was originally planned to follow the Bathurst dates this month. However on Tuesday the operators changed the date to late November, but it was rejected by council.

Organiser Jade Evans said the event featured rides, sideshow alley games, showbags, entertainment and carnival food. She said it appeared council had misunderstood the proposal.

"We will come back but it will be more community-based, with local market stalls," she said. "The Orange Show Society is going to get involved."

She said a maximum of 12 staff would travel from Sydney with up to 20 local people employed.

Mrs Evans said they had a COVID-safe plan with up to 500 people allowed at each of four sessions across two days.

"You can do this in a fun and safe way," she said. "All of our management and staff have COVID tests."

Mrs Evans said customers would be temperature checked, hand sanitiser was at each ride and all rides and facilities would be cleaned between the four sessions.

Cr Kevin Duffy told the council meeting many Orange-based groups had acted responsibly in cancelling their events because they were concerned about community safety.

"This organisation is coming out of Sydney. They are probably travelling around anywhere and everywhere," he said.

"I have been inundated with messages on Facebook, messages on my phone and phone calls from people saying "Hey, don't let this happen."

"It is mainly from middle-aged people who have elderly parents. They are really concerned about that," Cr Duffy said. "This is an opportunity for us to say 'no' as did the show society itself when it canned its show."

Cr Joanne McRae said the risks were too high even though the business was permitted to operate in NSW and had a COVID-safe plan.

"This is not a responsible type of activity for Orange City Council to be approving and we do the authority here to say 'no'.

"We saw, not that long ago, one single person who was a resident of Orange have dinner in Sydney and on their return to Orange turn out to be a positive case.

"And we saw the alarm that had in our community."

She said there was fear and a "hyper-vigilance" in the health community about the risks of the virus.

Cr Jason Hamling said he would welcome the event back when the pandemic was over.

"I don't think we can put our ratepayers and especially the elderly and the people who are unwell at risk of something like this maybe coming out here," he said.

Cr Jeff Whitton said council should support local organisations that had cancelled their events and approving the Fun Fair would be in opposition to that.

Deputy mayor Cr Glenn Taylor said local businesses needed visitors to survive but this was a different time.

"In difficult times we have to make difficult decisions," he said.

"We must put our locals first."