A HOST of stars with connections to the North-East – including Bryan Ferry, Sting, Neil Tennant and Sir Thomas Allen – have expressed anger at planned cuts to arts funding in the region.

The celebrities have criticised what they say is “short-sighted” attack on the cultural life by Newcastle City Council as the authority plans to axe its entire £2.5m budget for arts organisations, as it strives to save £90m a year.

In a joint letter, they claim the council is “throwing away a shared cultural heritage .. built up be generations and generations of ordinary people in the city”.

The “blanket and pre-emptory” cuts could result in “generations of young people denied access to the opportunities we were given and, without the council’s support, the arts will simply become a pursuit for the most wealthy", they add.

Organisations at risk include the Northern Stage and Live Theatre as well as the Laing Art Gallery and Great North Museum. Among those hardest hit will be The Theatre Royal which would lose around £600,000-a-year if the cuts were made. The city hall, meanwhile, could be sold off for redevelopment.

Dance City, Seven Stories, the Globe Gallery, the Star and Shadow, Amber Film/Side Gallery and Isis Arts are also under threat.

The letter continues: “No strategy has been made to save any or part of these thriving organisations and it seems to us a short-sighted attack on the arts and the idea that culture should be available to all.”

Durham University Chancellor, Sir Thomas Allen – an opera baritone who hails from Seaham Harbour, County Durham, said he was appalled by the council’s proposals.

He said: “I hope someone will realise that we’ve all come from a fertile area that was able to acknowledge local talent.”

Newcastle council leader Nick Forbes said he understood and shared the anger the proposed arts cuts had caused, but said central Government decisions had left the council with no choice.

“The cut in government grant is grossly unfair – at a time when more and more families are turning to us for help. Financially this has put us in an impossible position from which there is no escape,” he said.