THE former chairman of the Local Government Commission, Sir John Banham, has said that whatever happens, changes like the the one suggested for Blackburn will inevitably cost more money.

The Audit Commission has said that the cost for the change will either be a credit of £700,000 or a cost of up to £10 million. I think it would be fair to estimate that the cost would be about £5 million.

Given a possibility of eight per cent cuts in the educational budget as a result of continued underfunding of education by the present government, the children of Blackburn and Darwen need every penny available spent on them and not have cash frittered away on a change which only the politicians seem to want.

Could councillors guarantee that the change will not cost the citizens of Blackburn anything and can they produce figures to back up any statement they make?

Blackburn will have to employ its own chief education officer and other officers to run the service and this is bound to cost extra money. Many jobs which the Lancashire Education Authority already does will have to be duplicated.

Will they guarantee that there will not be any further costs to Blackburn and Darwen in subsequent years? Already I am hearing teachers talking of moving out of Blackburn and going with the county if the change goes ahead and these are good, experienced teachers.

FRANK SHUTTLEWORTH, Lancashire Divisional Secretary, National Union of Teachers, Kentmere Drive, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.