LIVERPOOL’S award-winning Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra is under threat due to a funding row with the city council.

The 30-strong orchestra, which started about 25 years ago, needs about £50,000 of annual funding.

But campaigners and the orchestra said the council now wants to change the basis for around half of its funding, meaning the group would have to do outreach work in schools – diverting it from the main focus of having a Chinese Orchestra.

Last night, Zi Lan Lao, arts development officer for the orchestra, said she could not predict what would happen if the issue was not resolved.

Next year, Liverpool will be the only city outside London that has its own presence at the World Expo in Shanghai.

The threat to the youth orchestra could be a PR disaster ahead of the massive showcase, said Labour councillor Steve Munby, whose Riverside ward includes Chinatown.

The council insisted no decision had yet been made and that it was supportive of the orchestra.

The orchestra has recently won the best cross-cultural collaboration in the World Music Awards 2009. During the city’s Capital of Culture celebrations, the youth orchestra played with Jah Wobble, formerly of Public Image Limited, in a critically acclaimed Chinese Dub gig.

Ms Lao said: “If we follow the youth service strategy, it means we will have to take artists away from working with the orchestra.

“We are having to look for other funds to keep the orchestra going.

“If this is not sorted out, we cannot predict what will happen."