I READ with interest the ridiculous comments made in your paper on December 13 by the Tory education chairman, Garry Perkins, who stated: "This Labour Government has consistently and constantly starved Swindon's resources."

It is not a new phenomenon that the Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) gives Swindon a lower level of expenditure from central government. It was his own Tory government who introduced the SSA formula in 1990/91 at the same time that they also introduced the disastrous poll tax which squandered £15 billion. Since that time the formula has not been altered.

Consequently, as Coun Perkins knows, over the past year the Labour Government has been looking at ways to improve the SSA formula and will introduce changes in 2003/04 which will deliver a fairer system throughout England.

It was the Tory Government's rate capping of Swindon Council in its first year as a unitary authority in 1997 that left us with an £11 million deficit with education losing £2.1 million. Ironically council tax was reduced by three per cent.

It is about time that Coun Perkins and his Tory colleagues acknowledged the fact that it was the policies of their own government which are responsible for the state of education funding today. It is the Labour Government which is taking massive steps to reverse the effects of those policies and bring about positive results to our education system.

COUN PETE BROWN

White Edge Moor, Liden

Swindon