YOUR editorial claimed the council has got its sums wrong in calculating the education budget (June 10).

This may have left readers with the impression that there had been a change in the budget allocation notified to schools last February.

This is not the case.

York was one of the first local education authorities (LEAs) to realise the scale of the problem, having done its sums correctly last December. In response to requests by the press to put a figure on the shortfall, the LEA provided an early estimate of the impact on a "typical" primary and secondary school.

Further work suggested that this figure was too low and in March, a new figure was used which suggested schools would be experiencing a shortfall of roughly two per cent on their budget: about £15,000 in a "typical" primary school or £75,000 in a "typical" secondary school.

Since then, the LEA has been working closely with headteachers to help them find ways of dealing with this shortfall. Some redundancies, however, have been unavoidable.

The Evening Press challenges the LEA to put a figure on this. We have made no secret of the fact that "more than 20" teaching and non-teaching staff will lose their jobs. As of May 31, the number of redundancy notices that have been issued is precisely 20, though a number of these jobs have been lost as a result of falling pupil numbers.

It would be unfortunate if your readers were to form the impression that the council is simply "sniping" at the Government. We are actively involved in constructive discussions with the minister responsible to ensure the problem is not repeated next year.

Patrick Scott,

Director of Education and Leisure, City of York Council,

North Street, York.

Updated: 11:33 Thursday, June 12, 2003