AN international festival which attracts stars from around the world has warned that the withdrawal of a £23,000 council support grant could cost the local economy £1m in income.

Harrogate International Festival has previously welcomed classical performers of the calibre of Nigel Kennedy, Julian Lloyd Webber and Lesley Garrett, comedians Jeremy Hardy and Jack Dee, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, as well as jazz legends including Betty Carter.

The annual event, staged in the town's Valley Gardens, has become a summer tradition in recent years, enabling organisers to develop links with youth groups to encourage an interest in the arts among the younger generation.

However, Harrogate Borough Council says it is to receive such a paltry grant settlement from Westminster this year that sweeping cuts are inevitable.

The swimming baths, in Starbeck are in the firing line - along with the £23,000 funding normally offered to the festival.

Ripon and Skipton's Conservative MP David Curry and Phil Willis, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, have lobbied Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford for more cash.

Mr Willis subsequently claimed to have secured a deal worth an extra £100,000 for the authority - although the leading Tory group on the council denies that a single representation won the day.

The authority is now re-examining its finances ahead of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Harrogate International Festival director William Culver-Dodds said the authority should be in no doubt that axing the grant would spell the end of the event.

He said: "Our credibility is bound to suffer if we don't have the support of the local authority and we are likely to find that we will lose other grants as well. Once the festival has gone, it will be gone for good."

He said the festival brought an estimated £1m to the local economy through the thousands of visitors it attracted.

Council leader Mike Gardner said that, even though the authority had £100,000 more to spend over the next 12 months, it was not in a position to promise anything to the festival.

"We won't be discussing the matter until the meeting on Wednesday, but what I can say is that the Government will expect us to use the cash for long-term solutions that will help limit any rise in Council Tax," he said