Cornered

The Government's Education Secretary had refused the Adver an interview ahead of her appearance at yesterday's Local Government Association autumn education conference.

So I stopped her outside the Hilton Hotel in West Swindon as she got out of her car and handed her a copy of yesterday's edition of the paper.

It carried the headline 'snubbed' and explained how Swindon's schools are struggling to keep up with the rest of the country on GCSE results, largely as a result of Swindon Council being given £6.5 million less than the average unitary authority on education.

Without even reading the open letter that our editor Simon O'Neill had penned to her on the front page, Ms Morris angrily castigated me for being "unfair".

This was despite the fact that the Evening Advertiser wrote to her this summer asking her to bring a speedy end to the current Standard Spending Assessment system which allocates cash based on social, geographical and historic factors.

In the letter, we stressed the urgency of Swindon's situation and asked her to assure Swindon people that the town would not suffer heavily again next year.

Too busy to respond, she asked School Standards Minister Stephen Timms to write to us to explain the situation.

But his reply came just days after the Government confirmed that the SSA would not be changed until 2003.

In response to my questions yesterday, Ms Morris said: "I did not snub your interview. I am here for an hour and after this I have to be in north Birmingham.

"Let's be clear about this because what people in Swindon think about the way I am treating this very serious issue is very important to me.

"I agreed to come to the LGA conference, not to speak to the Swindon Evening Advertiser. You called me yesterday and my time was already committed.

"Because I was answering parliamentary questions this afternoon, which is a public duty I am expected to perform, I have had to come here for just an hour before going off to Birmingham for 6.30pm.

"I agreed to meet members from Swindon LEA (local education authority) and teachers and all I could grant them was 10 minutes due to my tight schedule.

"I am making a speech to the conference and then meeting Swindon headteachers afterwards I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that I would not have time for an interview.

"The issues you are raising are worth more than one or two minutes of discussion and I think the people of Swindon would expect more than that.

"I'm afraid what you have done is unfair and only serves to distort the issue. I spend a lot of my life giving interviews to local newspapers and I would be happy to agree another time over the next week when we can speak properly about this.

"But I would ask for a little degree of understanding of the fact that today I am unable to speak to you about this."

Our Evening Advertiser team had originally been given permission by the LGA to hand out free copies of the paper to every delegate as they entered the conference hall.

But when we arrived, a press officer for the LGA, Astra Fletcher, saw the front page and told us to leave immediately.

We gathered our 250 papers and stood outside the hotel entrance instead, stopping delegates as they arrived back from coach tours of Swindon and Wiltshire's schools and education facilities.

Despite Ms Morris's outburst and the LGA's reaction, our campaign has consistently been backed by Swindon Council, the town's two MPs, the three main teachers' unions, headteachers and the council's director of education, Dr Mike Lusty.

And yesterday the Adver again received backing from delegates at the conference.

Almost all those we stopped agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiments of yesterday's article.

The shadow secretary of state for education, Damien Green, said: "I know the education problems in Swindon have been catastrophic and Swindon has been badly let down by both central Government and the local council.

"I have been made very aware by people here of the anger of local people on this issue. It is clear there's a crisis in education in Swindon and it would seem to me that it would be sensible for Estelle Morris to speak to the local paper to explain what needs to be done.

"There has been a group of the 40 worst-funded local councils that has been lobbying the Government for more than 12 months saying the funding formula needs to change quickly.

"Ministers have just tried to sweep it under the carpet and hope it would go away, but people care passionately about the state of education and if you ignore them, you will get the reaction you see today in Swindon."

Graham Lane, the chairman of the LGA education executive for England and Wales, appeared to disagree with his press officer.

He said: "I'm not surprised by the stance the Advertiser has taken and I would expect my local paper to do the same.

"Estelle is normally very good with the press and coming to Swindon, you would have thought she could have explained the situation.

"The problem is around the whole issue of local government funding, which is a very complicated matter. The Government has looked into it and found the same as everyone else, that unless you put a lot more money into the system, changing it will just end up with more losers.

"In the meantime, councils need more help the Government needs to put in half a billion pounds next year. I think that's realistic and what we should expect."

Coun Peter Chalke, leader of Wiltshire County Council, said: "Wiltshire and Swindon have been shoddily treated by this Government on funding for schools and it is now at crisis point for both authorities.

"I am right behind the Evening Advertiser on this and would encourage all other local papers in Wiltshire to do the same."

Andrew Nye, head of Seven Fields Primary School in Penhill, said: "Funding in Swindon is an absolute disgrace my school gets £60,000 less than the average unitary authority school, and it is those schools we are compared with on results.

"Money isn't everything but I'm sure we would be able to raise standards significantly if we were just funded at the average. I think it's terrible that Ms Morris won't talk to you and I shall say that to her when I speak to her myself."

Alastair Thompson, a councillor from Portsmouth City Council, said: "I think what the Swindon Evening Advertiser is doing is really good and I hope more papers do a similar thing in getting on the Government's back.

"There remains a lot of unanswered questions on funding and Portsmouth has suffered like many others. The Government can go out to consultation and put off decisions all it likes, but in the meantime, schools are suffering."

Roy Pegram, from Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "We have the same level of funding as Swindon, so we understand the problems. I'm 100 per cent behind what you are trying to do."