BOLTON education bosses have got their fingers crossed it will be them when the lottery numbers are drawn on Saturday.

For a local councillor is trying to win the £9 million estimated jackpot for Bolton's crumbling schools.

Last night Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Roger Hayes presented a lottery ticket to education chairman Cllr Don Eastwood during a meeting of the full council.

He told him if the numbers came up the £9 million should be spent on teachers, books and classrooms for Bolton's schoolchildren.

Any leftovers should be spent on stemming the £5 million worth of cuts in council services planned for next year.

Cllr Hayes, who represents Smithills ward, told his bemused colleagues he picked the numbers -7 - 9- 10- 16- 41- 47 - by looking at a long list detailing the shortfalls between government cash allocations and what the council claim they need. But he said he wanted to make a serious point and claimed Bolton secondary schools have seen their funding cut by 11.3 pc since the last election. I want people to know that education funding is a lottery," he said.

"In Bolton many schools are looking at cutting teaching staff and valuable subjects such as music and sport are suffering. Schools are in a pretty critical state, unhealthy buildings sometimes with problems of safety."

Cllr Eastwood described the lottery idea as "a champion gesture" and said he will put the ticket in the town hall safe ready for Saturday's big draw. But he warned Bolton parents not to be too optimistic if the education department beat the odds and won the giant cash jackpot. "Winning would solve our problems for the time being but we would still be short next year," he said.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.