The editor of a community news website has vowed to continue his fight to get back into print despite a further funding rejection.

Stephen Kingston has been trying to secure funds to allow the Salford Star to become a printed magazine again rather than just an online publication.

But Salford City Council has now turned down an appeal by Stephen, which was made after three ‘community committees’ run by the authority refused grants for a total of £3,500.

The funding bid was rejected after the council said the Salford Star did not meet its criteria because it was overtly political, not balanced and used offensive language.

Stephen said he was not surprised at the decision but claimed the council had provided no evidence to prove the magazine did not meet its criteria.

He said: “I don’t think they want to fund us because we investigate them and are critical of them and they don’t like it.

“We will keep going. We will get the magazine back into print. Since we went out of print, we have had £2,500 in donations from people. We get money in every day.”

The £3,500 applied for would have allowed one printed edition of the magazine to be published, which would cost £7,000 in total – with donations, advertising and sales of merchandise meeting the rest of the cost.

The Salford Star was launched in May 2006 and published its last printed magazine in autumn 2008.

A council spokeswoman said guidelines had been put in place when the first funding application for a publication had been received in 2007 and the criteria had not been met by the magazine.