County's £2 million windfall

Shirehall coffers have been given a surprise £2 million boost but Shropshire schools remain massively underfunded, it was revealed today.The Government has announced a £63.567 million funding settlement for Shropshire County Council next year - a six per cent rise of £3.6 million and just over £2 million more than finance chiefs had been budgeting for.

Telford & Wrekin is getting a massive 8.6 per cent increase, taking the borough's grant settlement to £64.262 million.

Although the extra cash for Shropshire County Council will help ease some service pressure worries and keep tax rises below five per cent, it does not address growing fears about the underfunding of schools.

Leader Malcolm Pate said: "The settlement is better than we expected on the non-educational side of our expenditure and it will enable us to address some of the pressures on services for the elderly and those with learning disabilities, but unfortunately we are are still underfunded on education.

"We are fifth from bottom in the schools funding league and if we were funded at the average of other county councils we would be £14 million better off.

"We will have to decide how the settlement can be used to ease service pressures and how much of it can be used to mitigate council tax increases."

Elsewhere in Shropshire there has been a less than favourable response. Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council has been given an increase of just one per cent, bringing its allocation to £7.231 million.

Telford & Wrekin leader, Andrew Eade, said: "We appear to have received some unexpected increases in funding and on the surface, it looks a reasonable settlement."

The West Mercia Police Authority has a 2.5 per cent increase to £118.857million.

Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority's settlement is £7.670 million, a 6.6 per cent rise.