I AGREE with David Mowat (Warrington Guardian, February 16) with regard to the new schools funding formula (NFF).

The proposals are indeed bizarre but also deeply unfair for Warrington children.

The strongest argument he could make is the broad financial one, which I believe is above party politics and something on which most people will agree.

The NFF lowers the basic per pupil element and Warrington will be right at the bottom of the pecking order at 141st out of 150 local authorities in England.

We have been a very low funded area for many years and the new formula does nothing to redress the previous imbalance.

Instead we have sunk even further towards the bottom of the pile.

Milton Keynes (103rd) is often compared with Warrington as a former new town of similar size and economic profile.

Each pupil there will receive £162 more than a child who lives here.

In Prime Minister Theresa May’s own affluent Windsor and Maidenhead constituency (98th) each child will receive £186 more than a comparable Warrington child. Shockingly, in an averagely funded authority each pupil would receive a whopping £439 more.

Surely this is wrong.

Mr Mowat should focus on this basic funding rather than the more peripheral aspect of the so-called ‘catch up premium’ for pupils who do not meet the expected standard at age 11.

Is he really suggesting that Warrington’s primary schools might fail to do their best in order that the secondaries the children transfer to might receive additional funds?

The biggest problem is that the Government has not adjusted any area’s funding by more than three per cent either way, which is why there hasn’t been much movement at the top and bottom of the list.

Sadly this is a major stumbling block to ensuring a fairer distribution across the country and does not remove the previous postcode lottery, as everyone involved with schools had hoped.

In short, Warrington ought to be closer to the middle of the funding ‘league table’ and he should call for the formula to be reconsidered.

I sincerely hope Mr Mowat can make this important point on our behalf.

CLLR REBECCA KNOWLES Labour – Chapelford and Old Hall