THE fate of an £11m scheme to save a theatre from demolition is to go to a referendum, it was announced yesterday.

Civic leaders have been forced into an urgent rethink about plans to rescue the 100-year-old Royal Hall, in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, after a National Lottery grant fell £2m short of what was needed.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has offered a grant of a maximum £6.5m towards the total needed to restore the Grade II-listed building, which has played host to The Beatles and Cliff Richard in its time.

But Harrogate Borough Council had been hoping for an award of about £8.4m to help secure the structural integrity of the building and restore the inside to its former glory.

The authority believes it can find £2.7m from available capital resources to shore up the building, but is unlikely to be able to afford a further £2m for fixtures and fittings.

Now council tax payers are to be asked for their views on the future of a scheme which could involve the council using nearly all of its capital resources for the next few years on one project.

Council leader Geoff Webber said: "If, following a further submission to the HLF, we were to end up with a £6m grant on the basis of a scheme without renewing those internal fittings, then the council could probably fund it and save the building.

"But unless we prepare a detailed development scheme, which the Lottery has agreed to fund, we won't know, and the Lottery is unlikely to give us a view without that development work."

An earlier consultation of 1,000 residents, focus groups, parish councils and schools received overwhelming support for restoration of the Royal Hall.

But Councillor Webber said a wider audience must be asked for its views because of the financial implications of the scheme.