BOLTON'S headteachers are spending enough money on their schools -- despite more than £5 million being left unspent during the last financial year.

Headteachers across the borough were allocated more than £123 million to spend on improving their schools, but Carol Davies, the Head of Finance for Education and Culture in Bolton, said that it was standard practice for such a large surplus of cash to be left in the bank.

She said she was confident that headteachers were spending their budget on pupils and school facilities.

She said: "We expect at the end of every financial year for there to be at least five per cent of the budget allocated to schools left unspent, and this year we were within that boundary. I have no concerns about any particular school in the borough. If a school does have a large surplus of cash we go and visit them. But normally schools have a long term budget plan in place which sets out how they're going to spend the money. "Schools need to ensure their long term future and we encourage schools to have a long term financial plan in place. Nobody would look at one financial year and spend their whole financial budget."

Richard Palframan, the regional secretary for the NUT in the North-west, said that it was not unusual for such a large of cash to be left unspent. He said: "The figures relate to all of the schools' budgets in the borough together and not to one individual school."