A MASSIVE campaign for increased funding in Bury's schools will be launched next month.

Bury Council is facing £9 million worth of cuts next year and more than half of the cash will be slashed from the education budget.

The bid for cash will take off at a school governors' forum at Bury Town Hall on October 9 at which MPs Ivan Lewis and David Chaytor will speak.

The cash crisis strikes at the heart of Bury schools which are defending a proud record of academic success.

Last year saw savage cuts in education spending and a similar prospect is in store this time around.

Further cuts would mean bigger classes and even fewer teachers.

But at a meeting on Wednesday (Sept 17), education committee chairman Coun David Ryder called for a "loud and successful" campaign to secure further Government funding for Bury.

He said: "There are civil servants in London who think councils are here to be ignored and run by troublemakers.

"But we have to get the message across that we are not being profligate.

"We need to tell them there is just no more money. But it is hard to be heard in a clamour, that is my worry.

"I stood on the balcony at the Town Hall last February during a demonstration and was booed over cuts. But I didn't mind because the council had done its damnedest in hard times.

"But this time they will not boo, they will throw brick. They will pull down the town hall.

"And if we do not secure extra funding we will deserve it."

The amount of cash Bury will receive from the Government for next year will not be known until November.

Coun Ryder added: "We are on a cliff edge screaming, hoping that the driver of the juggernaut reversing towards the cliff can hear us.

"Our enemy is hoping for the best. We should recognise the worst. The threat to education is very real. Huge bites have already been taken out of the budget.

"With a further round of cuts the level of threat will become unacceptable. But we can defend the service with knowledge and sound argument."

Bury faces acute funding problems because of the Government formula used to work out the allocation of cash to individual councils.

The criteria in the formula are such that a town like Bury is poorly funded, especially regarding the amount of money spent per pupil.

Bury Council has has sent a document, entitled "Educational Excellence in Bury at Risk", to the Government to reinforce the position.

It is part of Bury's campaign to force a shake-up in the way money is given to councils, a formula which currently consigns Bury to the foot of the funding league.

The crisis in funding will be discussed at an Excellence in Schools conference in Bury on October 16.

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