ST HELENS Council has hit back over Government league table claims that it is under-spending on education.

A council spokesperson described the figures as "grossly inaccurate" and said council leader, Marie Rimmer would be making an immediate protest to Education Secretary, David Blunkett.

Councillor Rimmer said: "This is an unwarranted attack on a responsible education authority and I will be immediately taking this up with David Blunkett."

However, Councillor Brian Spencer, leader of the Liberal Democrats on St Helens Council, has called for a special meeting to discuss the claims. He said: "Members of the council and parents need to know the truth. I have written to the chairman of the Education Committee asking to hold a special meeting to fully explain the implications of this alleged under-funding and what is going to be done to put it right."

The council spokesperson said that St Helens actually spends a massive £2.7 million more than its government allocation of £76.5million and said that a further £2.5million for the teachers pay award had not been taken into account in the figures. Along with "other discrepancies" this helped to paint a totally inaccurate picture and St Helens' position had been grossly misrepresented by these errors.

These included the Government ignoring the £400,000 spent on the new deal for schools initiative and an incorrect calculation of the base figure of £500,000. This was money from the council's own coffers, not what the Government awards it.

The spokesperson added that the Department of Education had been made aware of this situation in advance of producing the league tables and the council was extremely disappointed that they had not been amended before publication of the tables.

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