A furious war of words has broken out over the accounts for Lincoln's Theatre Royal.

Director Chris Moreno accused City Hall chiefs of misleading the public after they said £1.5m of taxpayers' cash had been handed over in the last 10 years without him submitting full accounts.

In the fall-out from City Hall's decision to stop funding the theatre, senior Tory councillor Hilton Spratt said no information had been offered on what public money was being used for.

But, in a strongly-worded statement, Mr Moreno said the remarks were "erroneous, uninformed and totally misleading".

"The sadness is this council seems to manipulate the facts in order to cover up its shortcomings and inadequacies in running the city," he said.

"As far as I'm concerned, the theatre will close at the end of March, the fairness of which is clearly at the doors of this miserable authority."

Mr Moreno said the accounts had been presented to the council each year since subsidies began 10 years ago.

But this version of events was contradicted by both Coun Spratt and Labour councillor Ric Metcalfe, who ran City Hall for most of the years the subsidy was in place.

Coun Spratt said: "As far as I know, we have not really received any business plans for the Theatre Royal.

"No accounts. We've had absolutely nothing as I understand it, although I have only been in post since May.

"We haven't received accounts or projections or anything."

For more on the row, see Tuesday's Echo.