BOLTON is one of worst funded local education authorities, according to a new report.

The town is in the bottom third of a nationwide league table drawn up to show the amount of money spent per secondary school pupil.

While the London borough of Islington is allocated £6,064 per pupil by the Government, Bolton schoolchildren benefit from just £3,067 per pupil.

The statistics were provided to the Audit Commission by local education authorities. Norfolk is bottom with a spend per pupil of £2,206.

Bolton's new executive member of education, Cllr Carole Swarbrick, said she was unaware of the study but would be conducting her own investigation into school finance over the coming weeks. It could lead Bolton Council to ask for extra Government funds.

Cllr Swarbrick said: "Smithills School, for example, is something I am just coming to grips with. Because of its locality in a not particularly disadvantaged area, it seems it does not do well in terms of attracting extra money.

"But they do take a lot of children from quite deprived areas. That is the sort of thing I intend to look at."

A Bolton Council spokesman said Bolton spends more on education and schools overall than the Government allocates for the purpose.

He said: "The way that the new national system for allocating resources works means that Bolton is still subject to an upper limit restriction on growth in its budget allocation from central government.

"This means that while Bolton is entitled to a greater share of national spending on education, other authorities, which would have a reduced allocation, are receiving some protection. If this ceiling is lifted, Bolton schools would benefit."

The spokesman said there were variations between LEAs on how some budget items were accounted for, so comparisons were sometimes incomplete. In Bolton, spending per pupil in the secondary sector in 2002-03 was slightly higher than the average for other metropolitan LEAs.

The study on spending was carried out by GMB, the union for school support staff. It found that out of 21 North-west authorities, Bolton was in 15th position in terms of per capita spending on secondary school pupils aged 16 and under, for 2002/03.

The study ranked Bolton in the bottom 50 authorities in the country. The union calculated that the average in spending per secondary school pupil in England was £3,452 a year - nearly £400 more than the Bolton figure.