A Hindu group that had its funding to organise Navratri cut last year has hit out at Brent Council for spending £60,000 on its own post-Olympics festival.

Hindu Council Brent says the council’s decision to spend the cash on its one-day Brent Celebrates a Golden Summer event in Gladstone Park on September 9 is “ludicrous”, after the Harrow Times revealed the figure yesterday.

The group organised a petition, signed by more than 6,000 people, last year in protest at the council’s decision to scrap £62,000 in grants for the community’s ten-day Navratri festival, which takes place in October.

In total, the council cut £231,000 from the borough’s festivals – including Christmas, St Patrick’s Day and Chanukah – saying it could not afford to finance them in the face of huge reductions in central Government funding.

Hindu Council Brent secretary Mahendra Pattni said: “It’s appalling, it really is, the decisions they are making over festival financing.

“One the one hand they say they have no money to fund things like Navratri, and then they find £60,000 to spend on this thing next month.

“All along they have been emotionally blackmailing us by saying they need the money to provide vital services for older people and things like that – so how is this vital?”

The council says that the event is good for value for money, with 20,000 people expected, and some money will be made from food concessions and stallholders.

But in contrast to the seven-and-a-half hour event which the authority has allocated £60,000 for, Mr Pattni said Hindu Council Brent could have provided a ten-day festival in more than 30 locations across the borough with the £62,000 it used to receive.

Councillors have already come under fire from Liberal Democrat leader Paul Lorber, who yesterday labelled the decision to spend the money “crazy”, and hundreds of members of the Hindu community protested outside the Civic Centre last summer over the cuts to Navratri.

Mr Pattni said he had harboured hope the situation could be resolved after meeting new council leader Muhammed Butt, but added: “He said he was committed to finding a way forward, but when they’re throwing around money like this it’s hard to see how.”

Brent faces having to strip out £100million from its budget in the four years from 2011-15 after massive reductions in central Government funding.

Cash for St George's Day was also cut, as was money for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) month and the festive lights.

Only bonfire night and Holocaust Memorial Day remained unchanged, while Diwali had £25,000 slashed from its £97,000 pot and Respect and Countryside Day combined into one festival.

The council said the £60,000 for next month’s event was a maximum spend, adding: “We have recently scaled down our festivals programme and made considerable savings this year.”