PLANS to bring an annual winter festival back to York have been scuppered amid claims that council support has been withdrawn.

The Festival of Angels has seen more than 200,000 people visit the city in recent years, but Magdalena Chavez from El Piano in Grape Lane - one of the regular organisers of the festival - said it would cost about £10,000 to stage, but would not be possible this year.

She said: "I think this is a great shame, and a mistake. It has always been a terrific draw bringing many extra people into the city which has economic benefits. But this is not its real value in my view.

"The festival brings something wonderful into people's lives at a time of year when many families are so stressed. A wander through the streets without having to dig deep in the pocket for everyone to be enchanted is priceless. While it would be hard to quantify I can't help wondering if this magical event might not have saved time and money for police, social services, marriage guidance and countless other agencies that mop up our lives when we get to the point where we just have too many stresses to cope."

Ms Chavez said traders were disheartened and did not wish to pay to put on the festival but also pay the council for permission to do so, at a time when "traders have taken huge personal cuts in income in order to maintain their staff in post with ever increasing costs".

It is not clear how much financial benefit the festival brings to the city, but the two day festival regularly saw thousands of visitors flock to the area and browse the ice sculptures and stalls put out by businesses around the Little Stonegate area.

Last year, more than 109,000 people visited the festival over two days, up more than 30 per cent on the 78,890 who visited in 2012, and 73,230 in 2011.

However, Gill Cooper, head of culture, tourism and the city centre, said no funding had been withdrawn by the council.

She said: "It is disappointing that the Festival of Angels won’t run this year, especially as it was set up originally by those businesses in the Quarter who benefit most from it.

"The council has supported the festival for a number of years free of charge and we remain willing to discuss how we can help and move things forward in the long term alongside our current programme of festivals which add so much to our vibrant city centre."

Ms Chavez said: "It's disappointing how we can all be stuck in short term thinking about events."