LAST week, it was a series of e-mails about the political allegiances of members of the campaign for better funding of Worcestershire's schools.

This week, the topic for Peter Luff and Mike Foster's regular correspondence remains schools, but it's back to headed note paper.

Peter was inspired to write by a dig Mike took in a Commons debate on Local Government Finance a couple of weeks ago.

(Mike had been trying to get Peter's support for the abolition of the Area Cost Adjustment on the record for some time, as he believes calls for it to be scrapped do not make sense and it should be reformed instead.

He did this by intervening on Tory spokesman Eric Pickles and saying "a leading Conservative front bencher told a group of Worcestershire headteachers that he believed the area cost adjustment should be scrapped".)

In a two-page letter, Peter is bemused by Mike's antics. He says it is "no secret" he has long favoured the abolition of ACA - which pays councils compensation for a high cost of living. Worcestershire does not get the special grant.

Peter writes: "I don't understand, genuinely, why you are making such an issue out of this.

"Since my election, nearly 12 years ago, I have consistently supported the abolition of ACA, which I have always regarded as a deeply flawed mechanism based on an intellectually unsustainable promise."

Peter then goes on to reveal that Mike's own colleagues agree.

"I think it's only fair to tell you I have talked privately to ministers in your Government and they agree with me that the intellectual justification for ACA is pretty difficult to fathom.

"It's one of those little devices that has crept into local government finance that should never have been allowed to develop in the first place."