BOLTON'S under-siege schools are being targeted by crooks and vandals who are landing them with bills for thousands of pounds every year. And tomorrow a Bolton Safer Schools Seminar is being held to try to tackle the problem. All head teachers and a representative from the board of governors of each school in Bolton have been invited to attend the event at the Last Drop Hotel, Bromley Cross.

In the past year, several Bolton schools have fallen victim to vandalism, including arson and theft.

Specialist security firms will display their latest products which will include alarm systems, glass security, computer security, CCTV, fencing, shutters and lighting.

There will also be guest speakers, including Margaret Blenkinsop, Bolton's director of education, who will speak on 'Defining the Crime Issues in Bolton Schools'.

Gordon Dickinson, GMP Architectural Liaison Officer, will pass on ideas for 'Designing Out Crime in Schools'. Harry Hooper, from Bolton Fire Service, will talk on 'Arson Prevention in Schools'.

'Dealing with Violence and Aggression' is the title of a talk by PC Stuart Ashall. Representatives from Chubb Security will speak on 'Security Alarms, Physical Security and CCTV'.

Bolton police's Chief Supt John Bartlett, who is also chairman of Bolton Safer Cities Steering Committee, will close the seminar with a speech entitled 'Working Together for Safer Schools'.

The Bolton Safer Cities Partnership is organising the event with funding from the Department of the Environment.

The last national survey undertaken by the DfEE into school security in 1992/93 revealed that the average cost of crime in England was £2,200 per school. In the same year there were 199,000 acts of vandalism, theft and arson in schools - or around nine a year per school. But those figures have since increased. In the past four months, the BEN has highlighted six arson attacks on schools in Bolton and Little Hulton.

One headteacher - Mr Paul Gilligan of St Joseph's RC School in Little Hulton - claimed his school was so badly hit by vandals, that the cost of crime was eating into his education budget. As a result he made an appeal to local businesses to help sponsor security.

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