BRITAIN'S national youth orchestra organisation is set to abandon its Edinburgh headquarters and relocate to London.

Staff at the National Association of Youth Orchestras, which is based at Methodist Central Hall at Tollcross, have reportedly been told the move is to allow it to be "closer to the centres of power".

And the future of the annual Festival of British Youth Orchestras, staged in Edinburgh every summer by the NAYO, is also to be reviewed.

Carol Main, who was NAYO director from 1979 to 2003, said she was "bewildered, frustrated and saddened" by the decision.

She said: "Scotland has nurtured and sustained this organisation for many years, and I do not remember anyone ever saying to me, 'I don't know why you are based in Edinburgh'."

Professor George Caird, the chairman of the NAYO, said the organisation was undergoing a "period of change" which was being aided by the advice of consultants.

He said a move to London was not 100 per cent certain, but pointed out the majority of the NAYO's membership fees came from youth orchestras in England.

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