CLAIMS that schools are being cheated out of funds have been disputed by Worcestershire County Council.

It says Education Secretary Charles Clarke is wrong to accuse councils of diverting money meant for classrooms.

The Education Secretary said millions of pounds were being spent on capital projects and warned authorities they could lose their funding power because of it.

But Worcestershire county councillor Adrian Hardman, cabinet member for resources, said the county was innocent of denying schools funding.

"These accusations that local authorities are holding back cash just aren't true," said Coun Hardman.

"We've fulfilled their pass-porting target and gone £1m over it. We've passed on £229.5m to schools.

"This reflects the priority the county council has given to raising standards in schools."

Pass-porting is when money is passed on to schools via the local authority. Worcestershire County Council is in the top five shire counties for pass-porting.

"All we can say, with our hands on our hearts, is that not only are we clean, but we're shining clean," said Councillor June Longmuir, cabinet member for education.

The uproar started when Mr Clarke blamed this year's funding crisis on councils not passing on money to schools.

At the conference of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) Mr Clarke claimed that £500m had yet to be allocated, though the figures had to be checked.

"Local councils are spending £100m more than the Government has allocated on their local schools, so claims that in general councils are under-funding and holding back money provided by central government are unfounded," said Sir Jeremy Beecham, chairman of the Local Government Association.

The National Association of Head Teachers said the Government was wrong to shift the blame on to the local authorities.

"There may be some local authorities which are at fault," said general secretary David Hart.

"But the reality is that all the money put in by central government this year has been swallowed up by cost increases, most of which are the responsibility of government."