THERE was a stir at Bury C of E High School when a government minister dropped in to savour the atmosphere of afternoon cookery classes.

Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers visited the school's new food technology unit and spoke to teachers.

Mr Byers, tipped to take over from David Blunkett as Secretary of State for Education if Labour win the General Election, also chatted with pupils and spiced-up a food technology class by helping to make stir-fry.

Accompanied by Bury North Labour candidate David Chaytor, the minister said that he was pleased with his party's election campaign, but that Labour could not afford to be complacent. He told The Bury Times: "We've got to increasingly share with voters a vision of the future. "I think there is a general vision here about putting more money into schools and hospitals and having a good economy as well.

"This is a good illustration of investment in technology over the last few years. If we are going to build excellent facilities then you have got to make the resources available and this school has benefited from that investment.

Mr Byers also visited an information technology suite built with parental donations. Headmaster Phil Grady and chairman of governors Mr John Allen then had the chance to grill Mr Byers over Bury's poor funding in comparison with other education authorities.

Mr Grady said: "We wanted to speak up for the borough as a whole and had a pretty thorough discussion about the situation.

"There is a good chance that Mr Byers is going to be the next education secretary so it is very useful to meet the minister at the earliest opportunity, and to have our name high on his agenda. He seemed to understand the problem."