IN your editorial (LET, July 16) you call for a reversal of the reduction in school buses that Blackburn with Darwen subsidises.

You suggest that these reductions are due to 'thrift' and 'cuts' by the council. If only it were so simple.

The money that was previously being spent on school transport has not been cut. In fact, the council is spending more money on education this year. But the amount we have to delegate to schools has been increased, leaving less in the central pot.

Unless schools buy back into services like school transport, these services will have to be reduced.

Each year the Government increases the proportion of the council's education budget which must be passed directly to schools. It is then up to schools which central services they purchase back from the council (or not).

This year, the proportion delegated to schools is 87 per cent, so that for every £1 the council has to spend on education 87p goes directly to schools. This is up from 70 per cent in 1998-9.

Needless to say, as the amount the council has for central services decreases, the pressure on central budgets increases -- and school transport is one of these. The 13 per cent left does not all go on administration -- it includes things like the youth service, adult education, special needs, education welfare, pre school provision, etc.

If you keep cutting the money in the central pot, there comes a point where you can't any longer reduce overheads, but have to cut services.

Ah, but why doesn't the council just put a bit of extra money in for school transport to replace this money now delegated to schools? If we did, 87p of every extra £1 would need to be passed straight on to schools.

Therefore, to put an extra £10,000 into school transport, the council would have to put an extra £77,000 into the education budget -- which we would have to cut from other council services. Welcome to the topsy-turvey world of local government finance.

As a parent of school-age children myself, I would much prefer that we did not have to make these changes. But that would require central government allowing local government more freedom on how to spend money locally -- and that isn't going to happen in a hurry.

COUNCILLOR DAVE HOLLINGS (Sunnyhurst Ward), Sudell Road, Darwen.