A DESIGN Festival is being organised to highlight the skills of the city's creative industries.

The city council has agreed to give a start-up contribution of £20,000 to the event which is due to run from October 20-30.

The festival aims to inspire the young, bring the design community together, promote business growth and promote both the designers and Winchester.

Winchester has long had a School of Art and many firms of architects and in the last 20 years graphic design agencies such as Toast and brand designers such as Peagreen have moved to the city

The organiser, Wendy Wyatt of a non-profit organisation Worthwhile Works, is also seeking funding from private sources and other agencies such as the Arts Council and Enterprise M3 LEP.

The £20,000 was agreed by Cllr Anne Weir, the Cabinet member for local economy, at a decision day on Monday January 13.

The council says the £20,000 will help launch the event and attract investment which will make it self-financing from the second year. The council has stressed there should be no expectation of funding for repeat festivals.

A report by Susan Robbins, corporate head of engagement, said: "A contribution of £20,000... provides the initial confidence and backing needed for the organisers to build the event, attract other sponsors and to have enough working capital to launch the event.The one-off support does not create a sense of dependency on the Council to fund future festivals, but does demonstrate the wish to support the sector of the economy."

The festival chimes with the city council's stated aim to boost the private sector and make the city less reliant on the public sector and tourism.

The decision is that half of the payment is made in 2019/2020 on signing of a funding agreement and the remaining 50 per cent is paid in 2020/2021 on receipt of a project completion report outlining how the project outcomes have been met.