THE government was today firmly blamed for East Lancashire's Further Education cash crisis.

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope and his Pendle Labour colleague Gordon Prentice joined forces in the Commons to call for urgent action to provide extra money to stop lecturer redundancies leaving classes untaught.

With large-scale redundancies in the pipeline at Accrington and Rossendale College and Nelson and Colne College, the MPs said changes in the way the government financed Further Education institutions had caused the problem.

Mr Pope, who secured the special 90 minute debate, said the crisis in East Lancashire mirrored the situation nationwide with student numbers up, government cash cut and lecturers sacked. He said that despite the fact that Accrington and Rossendale College in his constituency was likely to be praised in a forthcoming inspection report, the staff found that their reward was to be "undermined, under funded and face yet further redundancies".

The MP said "The only thing that seems certain in this fiasco is that, whatever the many failings of the old system, this kind of disaster did not happen prior to incorporation.

"Some people want to blame the governing body of the college for this appalling state of affairs.

"I reject that and lay the blame fairly and squarely where it belongs - with the government and the flawed mechanism of the Further Education Funding Council."

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