THE Gay Pride festival in Brighton may be scrapped after two rival organisers failed to sort out their differences and submit a joint proposal.

Brighton Pride, which has run the festival for the last three years, and rival group Pride 2000 have both submitted applications to stage the annual festival in Preston Park on July 29.

Last month Brighton and Hove Council decided to delay a decision on which application to approve and told the two rival groups to get together and form a joint bid by the New Year.

However a stormy meeting between the rivals failed to find a compromise and now the time needed to organise a festival for the summer is running out.

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove Council admitted there was now concern that the dispute could see the event killed off.

The council's arts cabinet minister, Ian Duncan, has always been reluctant to make a choice between the two groups that could end up splitting the gay and lesbian community.

But there seems little room for compromise, with both Brighton Pride and Pride 2000 willing to work together only on their own terms, leaving Coun Duncan no choice but to approve one application over the other.

Many fear the famous annual festival - one of the largest in Europe - will now fall victim to the same in-fighting that destroyed the successful Mardi Gras in Manchester and similar gay festivals in London.

Sue Nichols, of Brighton Pride, said her organisation had helped create the biggest and most successful gay festival in the country and described the rival application as a poorly organised, commercial take-over bid.

Although Pride 2000 had suggested she take on the role of its festival director, she turned the offer down on the grounds that her own team would be left out in the cold.

She said: "They know they cannot organise it without me, but they want to shut out my team. I'm just not prepared to sell out Pride to a commercial venture."

She said she was still waiting to receive a reply to her own counter-proposal offering two representatives from Pride 2000 the opportunity of working alongside her team this year.

She insisted Pride 2000's proposed structure of committee and trustees would fail because it would

mean too many people trying to make too many decisions.

She said: "I don't think there is room for compromise because that isn't what Pride 2000 want. They want to force me out completely and whether that means losing the festival or not they don't mind."

Former councillor Nimrod Ping, joint chairman of Pride 2000, said: "This is an extraordinary situation.

"Here we have a community festival run by a private company of just two people who are not accountable to anybody.

"We offered her the opportunity of applying to become director of the festival on four occasions and every time she was very rude. All she offered in return was for one of us to work for her without pay."

He said the split came about because the community was dissatisfied with the way Ms Nichols had been running the festival and wanted a more open and accountable structure.

He said: "Sue has been shown the door and she is simply hanging on to the door frame.

"She more or less has said she has a divine right to run Pride and she doesn't care that people do not want her to do so.

"If there was a referendum, I have no doubt we would win, but we haven't got time for that.

"Now it's back in the council's hands."

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove Council said: "We're just hoping their lack of agreement won't kill the event off as such disputes have in other areas.

"As of today, the options remain to permit both, either or neither."

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