THE legal wrangle over the future of York's Barbican Centre has taken a startling new twist.

Campaigners lost a High Court bid last week to block the redevelopment of the site, after the Legal Services Commission (LSC) had refused to grant them more than 50 per cent Legal Aid.

Save Our Barbican (SOB) members, who said they had not got sufficient funds to meet half of the estimated £30,000 costs, ended up without legal representation as they called for a judicial review of City of York Council's decision to grant planning permission.

Now the commission has granted full legal aid to an SOB member - to fund a judicial review of its own actions in seeking a 50 per cent contribution on the Barbican case.

It says the member, Marjorie Anderson, has not been asked to make any contribution in this second case.

SOB spokesman Ernie Dickinson said today that the decision made it more likely that it would appeal against Mr Justice Elias's decision to refuse the Barbican judicial review, on the grounds that it had been denied legal representation. This would appear to increase the chances of further delays for the redevelopment, which the council has warned could jeopardise the construction of a new swimming pool and refurbishment of two others in York.

But the authority today denied there was any such risk, saying: "The SOB group has had its day in court and the case has been thrown out.

"This new issue has nothing to do with City of York Council, and we regard it as an irrelevance, which has no bearing on the matters in court last week."

An LSC spokesman said it was hopeful the issue over SOB's legal aid could be resolved amicably and that litigation could be avoided, adding: "It is not unusual for the LSC to provide legal aid for challenges against decisions we make."

He said the LSC had been seeking information since January from solicitors about individuals in SOB to enable it to assess the level of contribution required, but this had not been provided. "Without any information, our starting level is 50 per cent," he added.

He said the commission had a limited budget and it was sometimes necessary to ask for a contribution towards costs.

He said: "In this instance, while funding was granted to Robert Collins and Marjorie Anderson, a much larger number of people stand to benefit from the action against York Council.

"Some of these people might be able to cover the costs of the case collectively if not solely by themselves. Thus the LSC felt it appropriate to ask for help in funding the case."

Updated: 08:37 Thursday, June 23, 2005