CLAIMS that York's council chiefs have held back £1 million intended for city schools are misleading, education director Patrick Scott has said.

Education secretary Charles Clarke has demanded to know why £1 million given to City of York Council has failed to reach schools.

He has also given North Yorkshire County Council ten days to explain why an alleged £1.5 million earmarked for schools has not been allocated.

But Mr Scott says the money, which was from standards funds, was used for particular purposes on a needs basis and could not yet be given to schools.

He said: "It is a bit misleading to describe that as unallocated money.

"We are keeping it back because we always have done and it is given out on the basis of need.

Mr Scott gave examples of schools who have newly-qualified teachers and need extra cash to help with their training and support.

He said the exact amount of money needed by the schools was not known until September when they take the staff on.

He said: "Even if we could allocate it now, it would not solve the problems of funding as it has to be spent on specific things."

North Yorkshire County Council said schools had not been denied funds and they would be happy to provide the DfES with information on funding.

A spokesman for the council said figures published by the DfES yesterday confirmed increases to the school's funding were fully passported.

He said some of the school funding did not go directly into school budgets, but was spent on things like building maintenance and children with special needs.

He said funds were not spent on running the local authority.

Coun Chris Metcalfe, the county council's executive member for education, said the real issue was that funding was tight and had been cut by £10 million.

Updated: 10:02 Saturday, May 03, 2003