A YOUNG Gwent dancer has been banned from appearing in a pantomime because she lives under ten miles from a Newport theatre.

Meg Jones, eight, was told she can not appear in Cinderella at the Riverfront Theatre this Christmas because she lives in Risca.

The youngster, who has been a member of a dance school in Caerleon Road, Newport, since she was four, is upset because she performed in the two previous pantomimes at the theatre - Dick Whittington and Aladdin - when she was living 16 miles away in Blackwood.

But the Riverfront says it has a policy of only allowing only children from the Newport council area to take part.

"I'm really upset," said Meg, of New Park Road. "I love singing and dancing and really look forward to performing every year."

The Waunfawr Junior School pupil's mother, Kirsty, 29, said she was outraged, claiming her daughter got through the first audition for this year's show only to be rejected when her address was known.

She claims the theatre has always known where they lived.

"I think it's a terrible policy especially when she has performed at the theatre for the last two years when she was living further away," she said. "Meg is devastated and it seems sad that children within local feeder towns are excluded from performing at a professional theatre."

Mrs Jones, who is married to Chris, 34, and has a three-year-old son, Harrison, is yet to make an official complaint.

Nicolas Young, theatre and arts director for the Riverfront, said it was policy to exclude children from outside the area because only 20 could be involved.

"The Riverfront panto is Newport's professional panto and we want talented Newport kids to have the opportunity to be in it," he said.

"From the information provided to us on the day of the audition last year by the parents of the specific youngster in question we believed her to live in the Newport council area.

"It transpired at a later date that she did not, by which point it was too late to replace her as rehearsals had begun.

"All information sent out to parents before the auditions this year stated that children must live and go to school in the Newport council area."