WHEN the long-awaited interview finally came, Estelle Morris did not mince her words.

The Education Secretary stated flatly that no extra money would be coming to Swindon this year to offset what she freely admitted was an unfair allocation from central Government.

Despite the fact the town has received consistently poor funding since it took on the education service in 1997, she insisted Swindon Council is not a poor authority.

She even claimed schools in the town should be able to raise standards to the national average by 2004 increasing GCSE passes by up to 10 per cent regardless of how much money they have.

Ms Morris promised to speak to the Evening Advertiser about the matter in depth and she could not be accused of ducking the difficult questions.

She reacted angrily in November when I confronted her at the Local Government Association conference at Swindon's Hilton Hotel.

Denied an interview, we wrote an open letter to her on our front page and handed 200 copies around the conference hall.

Today's interview comes as a result of that, but she still claimed to be too busy to conduct it face to face.

And in spite of high hopes from headteachers and councillors, she had no good news for the town.

Asked about the possibility of a one-off grant to help Swindon Council give more money to schools next year, Ms Morris said: "We're not doing that this year. The Standard Spending Assessment system is being changed next year, but for now we all have to work within our financial limits.

"It's a 20-year-old system that is incredibly complex to change. It doesn't reflect the need in different areas of the country. We're not sat here playing about with numbers, it's genuinely a case of trying to be as fair to everyone as we can.

"If you try to patch it together in between it makes it worse, because you would then hand out extra money to one council but not another and you would never keep everyone happy.

"I'm not trying to say don't moan about it I've been lobbied hard on this matter and as a newspaper, you clearly have a right to demand answers.

"But you have to understand Swindon is not the only area that suffers from this system and we can't give everyone an interim payment."

Asked whether the new system would truly bring more benefits to Swindon, Ms Morris inferred that the town could still end up near the bottom of the pile.

"I've not seen the proposals yet so I don't know what's going to happen," she said. "But the new system is bound to have weighting factors. There has to be differential funding for different parts of the country because some areas need more financial support than others.

"Swindon has got pockets of deprivation but it's not a poor authority. If we agree a set of indices that determine the needs of a local authority, there is no reason to think Swindon will be ignored, but we won't come up with something that every local authority will think is brilliant."

Ms Morris also argued that the SSA in which Swindon Council is allocated £82.1 million for education was not the only way schools receive their money.

She said Swindon schools would next year get £2.38 million in direct grants through the Standards Fund, by-passing councils and distributing money equally. "We have increased direct grants in recognition of the fact the SSA is not working," she said. "That's not begging money and it's not on a grace and favour basis. It is distributed in a way that gives every pupil an equal share."

On her demand that Swindon schools should raise their GCSE scores to the national average by 2004, she said: "Swindon children start off as bright as children anywhere else, so when we talk about raising standards, of course it can be done.

"All we're asking is that Swindon children perform at the same level as the rest of the country. Schools should not use low funding as an excuse.

"If you look at some of the authorities that are beating Swindon schools, you would probably find that money is not everything. Your teachers are not sitting around waiting for better money. "It's a difficult task to meet the targets, but it can be achieved if everyone rallies around the schools.

"I understand the grievances, but schools are seeing more money from Labour than they ever did under the Tories.

"The fact that Swindon is not getting as big a share of that increase as other areas is what has caused unrest."