HUNDREDS of people will turn up to perform at a Brighton Festival event which does not officially exist following another Royal Mail blunder.

A 120-member choir, an orchestra and four professional soloists have been

booked to perform Handel's Saul in St Bartholomew's Church on May 20.

Members of Barnet Choral Society have spent thousands of pounds hiring the church and paying for hotel rooms in the town for their visit.

But organisers fear the musicians could end up without an audience after a letter containing a £237 cheque to pay for a display advert in the festival programme, posted on November 13, failed to arrive.

By the time Barnet Choral Society secretary Elaine Bartrum realised it had failed to reach the festival office, the programme had already been printed.

She became concerned after realising the cheque still had not been cashed when she received the choir accounts last week.

Mrs Bartrum immediately contacted festival organisers who said they could find no record of the choir's cheque.

She said: "The choir has about 120 members and we have booked four professional soloists and an orchestra to appear with us.

"I have booked hotels for all these people as well as family, friends and supporters of the choir who want to come along.

"Now we are left in the position where nobody will officially know we are appearing at the festival. We will now have the extra cost of advertising and getting publicity for the concert by other means."

Delia Spink, concert organiser at St Bartholomew's, said: "They have done all the right things in setting up their performance as part of Brighton Festival.

"But nobody will know they are performing here because their advert will not appear in the programme."

No one from the Brighton Festival office was available for comment yesterday.

Ian Duncan, Brighton and Hove cabinet councillor for culture, said: "Unfortunately, events like this have become more regular since the Royal Mail moved its operations to Gatwick.

"At the time of the move we were reassured it would not mean a deterioration in the postal services in the Brighton area.

"Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case."

The blunder is the latest in a long list since Royal Mail resorganised in

Sussex. Cases reported to the Argus in January alone include:

l Important St John Ambulance exam papers posted in Ringmer on November 15 took 45 days to reach Brighton.

l A Christmas card sent by David Weltman took a month to travel from his Brighton home to its destination in Hove.

l A letter posted at Gatwick took three weeks to get to nearby Horley.

Royal Mail spokeswoman Diane Jones said: "We will conduct an investigation into why the letter did not arrive at the Brighton Festival offices.

"While it is very regrettable that this has happened, we would always advise anyone sending cheques or official documents to use the methods available through the Royal Mail for recording the delivery of post."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.