EDUCATION bosses at North Yorkshire County Council have been awarded a

special government grant worth almost £1.1 million.

City of York Council is to be paid £316,000, the Department of Education

said.

The cash has been paid to fill a "black hole" created by a shake-up in post-16 education.

Next year, the two councils will no longer be responsible for funding sixth forms and colleges. This responsibility will, instead, pass to the

newly-created Learning and Skills Councils.

Ministers made an estimate of how much cash should be taken from their overall education budgets for next year and given to the LSCs.

In North Yorkshire it was decided this sum should be £21.63m - even though council bosses estimated their spending on post-16 education had only been

£18.36m in the previous year.

In York it was £4.078m, compared to an estimated spending level of £3.26m.

Now the Department of Education has admitted it took too much cash from the

councils' total budget.

Schools Minister Stephen Timms said North Yorkshire would now receive a

special grant of £1.093m to bridge the funding gap. York gets £316,000.

The new LSCs will be responsible for all post-16 education and learning, including further education, work based learning and adult learning.

Updated: 11:12 Monday, February 04, 2002