THE leader of Bolton Council has declared that the local authority has had its best budget settlement for 20 years. Cllr Bob Howarth said: "There is a lot of extra money this year.

"The Government has been in power for almost two years and both education and social services have been their priorities and if the economy delivers as they expect, there will be money in other areas next year."

Management and finance committee councillors last night agreed to set Bolton's council tax increase at 4.7 pc which will mean that most of Bolton's council tax payers who are in band A properties will have an increase of 50p a week.

Their decision will now have to be rubber-stamped by the full council on Wednesday.

As already reported, education will have an extra £5.6 million although this includes £3 million for the teachers' pay rise.

There will, however, be cuts of £3.2 million in other budgets. But Tory deputy leader Cllr John Walsh said in real terms each child in Bolton's schools was only receiving 5p per week each from the extra money in education.

He claimed that after taking off the cost of the teachers' pay rise, inflation and money which the Government had claimed back or withdrawn from Bolton, only £104,000 would actually end up in schools.

He said: "Three pupils can have a pencil, thirty pupils can have half a ream of paper and 200 can buy a book."

But Labour's education chairman Cllr Don Eastwood hit back: "The bottom line is that schools know they are better off than they have been for a long time.

"They have not seen the cuts in their budgets which they saw for many years."

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