Over the past few weeks Dorcan Tory councillor Garry Perkins has made statements to the paper to the effect that Swindon Council is spending lower than the average Local Education Authority on school funding.

He makes the point that this is due to the Labour Government and the Labour Group who have had control of education in Swindon since 1997.

Perhaps Councillor Perkins was not around in 1997 when Swindon became a unitary authority, taking over school funding from Wiltshire County Council. Otherwise he would have known that in its first year, the then Tory Government still controlled rate capping of local authority funding.

This policy cut Swindon's education budget by £2.1 million or £60 per pupil in Swindon's schools.

For example, Dorcan School alone lost £58,000 in 1997. It should be recognised that what was lost then is still lost now.

Prior to 1997 Wiltshire County Council had control of education funding and were well-known to be one of the lowest spenders in the country. The proof of this is that in 1993/94 Wiltshire fell to 103 out of 109 authorities' spending on education.

No other council in the country had such a bad start as Swindon. As if rate capping was not enough Swindon Borough Council then had to contend with inheriting funding from one of the lowest education spenders in the country.

However, since 1997/98, Swindon's education revenue budget has increased from £61.3 million to £80 million an increase of £18.7 million, or 31 per cent in just over four years. This does not include the schools' direct grant introduced by the Labour Government in 2000/01.

In the first four years since the 1997 general election, the Labour Government has increased education funding by £12.9 billion (33.5 per cent). By contrast the Tory government's education funding in their last four years only increased by £2.2 billion, just 6.2 per cent. I would submit that the facts speak for themselves.

(Coun) Pete Brown

White Edge Moor

Liden, Swindon