Liberal Democrat attempts to convince the public over arts consultants funding are misleading, according to Labour's opposition Leisure spokesperson. And the suggestion that almost three quarters of schools have agreed to fund the previously centrally-funded service is plain wrong, says Coun. Sonja Crisp.

She said:

"I'm afraid assurances made to the council about the continuation of the arts consultants service to schools appears to have been premature. They claim that 70% of schools have come on board with their proposal that schools fund the service themselves.

"In fact 30 out of 63 schools have, which I'm sure most people other than the Lib Dems would argue is less than 50%. The problem we had was not knowing exactly what this proposal meant as it seems the Lib Dems were still working on what the implications would be of the cut at the time of the budget meeting.

"The reality we now learn is there are still a number of schools undecided as to whether they can fund this service that is important to the development of every pupil in this city. We will have to wait and see if they do get on board, but I'm sure they would take exception to the assumption that they will have the extra money floating around that is needed".

"If we hadn't seen the waste of previous years then I'm sure this proposal wouldn't have seen the light of day. Residents with children at school will have an interest in this issue so it's important that the Lib Dems are honest and up front about what they are doing. It may be better to reconsider the cut in the future if hundreds of pupils are going to lose out as a result of the council's own waste".