THE Royal British Legion has been advised to find a new venue for this year's Festival of Remembrance - because York's Barbican Centre might be needed for snooker.

Days before Britain marks the 60th anniversary of D-Day, in which so many lost their lives, City of York Council says it cannot confirm the legion's Barbican booking because it does not yet know when the UK Snooker Championships will be held.

It says it has given an undertaking to host the championships, which it is "hopeful" will return to York this autumn for the fourth year running.

Festival organiser Ted Griffiths said he was bitterly disappointed.

He said there had been months of uncertainty over whether the Barbican would be available, but he had been hopeful only last Monday that the festival could be staged there after all.

He said that he had attended a meeting that day with representatives of the council and future Barbican operators, Absolute Leisure, at which he had been given the impression it was likely the event could go ahead on November 7, just before the proposed snooker tournament.

He said he was then phoned by a council officer last Thursday and told: "I am sorry, you will have to find somewhere else."

He claimed he was also told that the whole centre would now be closing down at the end of June.

He said other potential city centre venues were either unavailable or unsuitable, but he was hoping the festival could instead be staged at the University of York's Central Hall. He was hoping to overcome the difficulties posed by the lack of box office facilities there, and said he would announce more details when proposals had been confirmed.

A council spokesman said today that the council had not told the legion the centre would not be available, merely that it could not at this stage confirm the booking because of the uncertainty over the snooker dates. If it later emerged that the festival date was available, the council would still like to hold it there if another venue had not been found.

Coun Keith Orrell, executive member for leisure, said officers had only said last Monday that they would "look into" the possibility of the Barbican being used for the festival, and had not themselves raised any hopes.

Asked whether he believed it was unfortunate that the snooker was taking precedence over the festival during the 60th anniversary of D-Day, he said both the festival and the snooker were important, but a commitment and undertaking had been given to snooker which could not be broken. He strongly denied that the whole centre would be closing at the end of June.

A World Snooker spokesman said it was "hopeful and confident" that the championships would return to York, and it hoped this could be confirmed, along with the dates, in a few weeks.

Updated: 10:36 Tuesday, June 01, 2004