A WAR veteran says he was left fuming when City of York Council asked the Royal British Legion if it had cash to pay for security measures at York's annual Festival of Remembrance.

Legion official Ted Griffiths blasted the council after he was approached about the cost of moving recycling banks that posed a potential danger to the event.

But the council dismissed claims that it demanded money from the Legion following Sunday's 13th Festival of Remembrance at the Barbican Centre.

The Lord Mayor of York, Coun Charles Hall, and the civic party were part of a 1,400-strong sell-out audience at the annual event to raise money for ex-servicemen and woman, and their families.

Recycling banks behind the Barbican Centre had to be moved on Sunday at the request of police who combed the venue for potential security weak spots due to the high level of military personnel taking part in the service.

Mr Griffiths, president of the York branch of the Royal British Legion and festival chairman, said he had "never heard anything so diabolical" when an official phoned him to see if the Legion had a budget to pay for the work.

Mr Griffiths said: "I just about blew my top. This has never happened before. If they gave us the Barbican for free, I could understand, but we pay them around £2,000 to hire the venue.

"I will not pay it. We do all this work voluntarily and all the artists give their time for free. We usually raise around £7,000 to £8,000, all of which goes to Poppy Appeal Headquarters."

The 84-year-old Second World War veteran said the charity had yet to receive the cash raised from the event, as money from ticket sales was collected by the Barbican Centre, which then deducted its fee and passed on the remaining amount.

"The Barbican starts ticket sales in June, so they will have benefited from the interest accumulated on the money," said Mr Griffiths.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said the council was planning to cover the cost of moving the recycling banks and had only made an approach to the British Legion because it had no budget for the work.

"It's absolute poppycock (that we demanded money from them)," she said. "We were asked to move the recycling banks and the only charge we received was £200 from another charity to move their textile banks.

"Our recycling team asked the Lord Mayor's Office if we had any money for doing this, but there is no central fund. We approached the Legion and they said no, so we are going to pay the bill."

Updated: 10:39 Wednesday, November 05, 2003