MONEY won't make a poet but it can afford poetry - putting pentameters beyond their parameters.

So when Dr Charles Bennett speaks of poetry as a 'product' he hasn't sold out, he's bought in.

After all, Charles writes poetry himself, when he is not doing his day job as director of Ledbury Poetry Festival, probably the most successful of its kind in the country.

Herefordshire Council's recent review of the festivals it funds didn't have a bad word to say about the Ledbury event.

There was particular praise for the way in which the festival has moved out of its niche market and sold itself to a wider community, effectively going full-time fostering initiatives that range from poets in primary schools to work with mental health groups.

To the reviewers that represented a way ahead for all the county's festivals, each of which is dependent on outside funding.

Herefordshire Council committed £58,500 to festival funding this year, much of it through community grants.

The review recommends replacing grants with set three-year service level agreements. Festivals would qualify for council cash on the basis of 'performance' targets they must meet.

And performance doesn't mean what's on the programme, but what the event can offer its community all year round.

Charles would happily to sign up to a service level agreement. As he sees it, his festival - through its community projects - is already offering services that the council's arts arm would like to provide but cannot afford too.

Ledbury Poetry Festival - with a turnover of £128,000 - can expect an annual £40,000 from the Arts Council and around £29,000 in ticket sales if this year's figures are a guide.

Over 150 organisations, businesses, charities, Trusts and individuals contribute to the coffers from there.

So at a squeeze the festival could survive without the £5,000 it now gets from Herefordshire Council, says Charles.

"But it's not about money, it's about relationship. What we can offer each other."

Service agreements would ease uncertainty over the grant system, says Albert Attwood, chairman of the all-volunteer Leominster Festival.

"With grants you have to go through an application process every year, with no guarantee of what you're going to get."

Herefordshire Council gave £5,000 to Leominster Festival this year. The review praised the event as knowing 'what it was about' in regularly running achievable and realistic programmes.

The festival can also count on strong community support that translates to funding from the Town Council and local businesses.

Past losses

With a turnover of £34,357 Leominster Festival has never been in the red says Albert.

"We have lost money in the past, but we are prudent. There's always been enough in reserve." Albert would extend the idea of service level agreements to some kind of overall administrator for all the county's festivals. Someone to focus on the big picture.

Focus is what Herefordshire Photography Festival has done through what the review referred to as 'internal difficulties'. Now EXPOSURE, as it is known, has the potential to be another Ledbury - among the best of its kind in the country.

Though the event's name is known in New York, EXPOSURE chairman Chris Smart says a service level agreement with Herefordshire Council would help raise its local profile.

Chris regards the council - which gave EXPOSURE £5,000 this year - as a key partner that the event wants a 'stronger relationship' with.

As a salute to success, EXPOSURE expects £50,000 from its main funder the Arts Council next year, up from the previous £20,000.

This longer shoestring - stretched by business sponsorship - could, says Chris, tie the event to educational opportunities and community initiatives beyond the exhibition itself - just what the review recommends it to do.

There are two and half centuries of difference between EXPOSURE and the Three Choirs Festival. Yet Three Choirs is the future.

Three Choirs already has a three year service level agreement with Herefordshire Council worth an annual £10,000.

Festival organiser Liz Pooley said that the agreement has so far meant all that the other festivals reviewed hoped for - bringing stability to financial planning and opportunities for expanding appeal.

At this year's Three Choirs some of the service money went into projects encouraging younger audiences and wider community participation, says Liz.

The pay-off, she says, was in seeing so much homegrown Herefordshire talent return to its roots.

But the festival would, says Liz, have to 'think seriously' before committing cash to any ancillary events in Hereford on years when it went to Gloucester or Worcester, as the review recommends.

"We would not want to undertake anything that might detract from the festival proper or stretch its budget."