IT WAS on the brink of extinction - but now the Stagecoach Youth Theatre has been rescued by a cash injection from a North Yorkshire businessman.

Only last night, the Evening Press reported that City of York Council had decided upon a phased withdrawal of funding for the group.

Stagecoach currently receives a £9,500 annual grant from the council, but the leisure advisory panel voted to cut funding by £2,000 a year until withdrawing it entirely in 2009.

Now businessman Angus King has pledged to donate £2,000 to cover the shortfall in council funding in the first year.

Mr King, of Thorganby, near Selby, said: "I've been following the story in the Evening Press and I'd like to save something that is very valuable.

"I think it's a great shame that something so worthy is being threatened by the mismanagement of a spiteful council.

"I decided to put some money in to cover the shortfall in the first year, and then hopefully try to interest some of my friends to come in with me to cover the subsequent years.

"I wanted to give some permanency to the theatre, so they haven't got this hanging over them."

But Stagecoach artistic director John Cooper said the fight to secure council funding would go on. He said: "This is a hugely generous contribution from Angus.

"It's important for all those that supported us to know that we're going back to the council next Tuesday when the full council convenes. We're going to present them with the 1,600-petition signatures we have calling for the reinstatement of the grant.

"We feel we made a substantial impression on Monday night at the leisure advisory panel meeting - I think there are concerns even within the Liberal Democrat group."

Mr King has pledged to make his £2,000 donation irrespective of whether the council changes its position on funding.

Diana Gibbon, whose children are involved with Stagecoach, said: "Stagecoach is without a doubt unique because of the number of performances the children put on.

"It's not just about plodding along, trying to achieve the mediocre. We want more than that - we want to go one better each time.

"The children definitely get a lot of self-confidence and a self-esteem boost from being involved."

And the good news means Mr Cooper and his young performers can start preparing for Stagecoach's Easter production of Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials'.

He said the play's publishers had told him they were the first company, amateur or professional, to have been granted the rights to present the play following its initial production at the National Theatre last Christmas.

Updated: 09:31 Wednesday, January 18, 2006