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Two senior city council officers have been handed ‘dead canary’ awards for their alleged failure to support the gay community in Canterbury.

In its 2012 roll of honour, Pride in Canterbury makes Canterbury City Council chief executive Colin Carmichael a repeat winner and gives an award to head of culture and enterprise Janice McGuinness.

However, in a response to Pride in Canterbury supplied by the city council Ms McGuinness hit back at the claims, saying the campaigners are in the best position to choose what to promote.

She is accused of failing "over eight years to respond to the need for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) culture in Canterbury".

Pride’s Andrew Brettell said: "We wrote to her [Janice McGuinness] asking what plans there are to bring drama and entertainment of specific interest to the LGBT community to the newly-opened Marlowe Theatre.

"We have been patiently petitioning for this for eight years now and it is apparent from Ms McGuinness’ reply that there are no plans, and the council has no intention of making any plans, in spite of the existence of the Equality Act, and the theatre’s promise to bring diversity of entertainment to the new theatre during its reconstruction."

In her letter to Pride in Canterbury, Ms McGuinness tells the organisation: "I cannot advise you what elements of the programme would particularly appeal to the LGBT community or any other community of interest.

"In my experience there is likely to be a diverse range of tastes within any group of residents, be that for music, panto, opera, musicals, drama, dance, etc.

"This is a matter of individual taste and very subjective."

Ms McGuinness has also invited Pride to choose and promote the entertainment its members believe will appeal the most to the LGBT community.

"I feel you are the one in the best position to choose the shows you wish to highlight and promote and it doesn’t seem appropriate for the theatre to be making that selection for you," she says in another letter to Pride.

Mr Carmichael wins his dead canary because the "buck stops with him".

However, he refused to comment on the issue this week.

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