MONEY earmarked to make Yate more attractive will have to be spent on consultancy fees, the Gazette can reveal.

Yate Town Council is furious that public funds donated by Tesco ahead of the major redevelopment of its town centre supermarket will have to be given to a South Gloucestershire Council-appointed art specialist.

Cllr Chris Willmore said: "It is a bureaucratic waste of money."

The town council wants the £70,000 donation to fund a public art project with young people to decorate the new youth café, which will be built next to Yate Leisure Centre.

Tesco bosses have agreed to the scheme as they say it will keep teenagers from hanging around outside their new landmark store.

But up to £7,000 of the money will have to be spent on employing an official art specialist to oversee the project.

A town council spokesman said: "The youth café includes a glass fronted indoor space and an important outdoor space.

"Either lends itself to a fantastic hands-on applied art project, working with young people to design some aspect of the project, which is both functional and an artistic statement."

The council said appointing a consultant would be "incongruous to the wishes of both Tesco and the local elected members" and would be "futile to spend the valuable funding on appointing a consultant who would then advise how the remainder of the money should be spent".

Cllr Willmore said: "We don't know exactly how much of the money will have to be spent on a consultant but the worry is it will be a significant amount.

"It would be very easy to spend ten per cent on fees."

Alison Catlin, arts development officer at the council, said a public arts specialist had to be commissioned for the project to go ahead.

A South Gloucestershire Council spokeswoman said: "The council has given guidance about the proposal for public art at the Yate Tesco development in line with our public art policy, which recommends that developers work with a recognised art professional to develop a clear strategy which is specific to the site involved.

"The council's aim is to ensure that the money is used to develop a high quality art scheme in consultation with local people which is specific to the needs of the development and will consider any scheme which meets this objective."