Ledbury Poetry Festival has welcomed an Arts Council announcement that secures funding for the next three years.

The festival was having to bid for Arts Council money on an annual basis but the body has guaranteed the current level of support until 2006.

Festival director Dr Charles Bennett said: "Arts Council funding is extremely important to us, representing as it does a quarter of the total costs of the poetry festival.

"This will mean a more securely funded future for us with grants that previously we have had to bid for on an annual basis becoming fixed over a longer period. It also means that funding which has previously come from a number of different schemes will be centralised."

Funding this year is £18,576, in 2003/4 it will be £19,133, rising to £40,000 the following year and £41,000 in 2005/2006. But these sums include Lottery money that has already been announced and incorporated into budget calculations.

Dr Bennett said: "The remaining three quarters of our funding is made up from contributions from company and individual sponsorship, donations and ticket sales."

Among the attractions this year will be game show host Nicholas Parsons discussing the poetry of cricket, poet and comedian John Hegley and novelist Louis de Berniere, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin.