WITH a background in accountancy Chris Smith knows when numbers won't add up.

Seven months into his term as Chair of Governors at Kington Primary School he's telling parents that there's no 'real money' to ensure essential improvements over 2001/2002.

By Chris's calculations his 11 class, 269-pupil school needed a funding rise of at least 4-5 per cent to address serious weaknesses identified in last summer's Ofsted report. The final figure was 2.5 with any extra allocation covering current costs.

"We have no room for manoeuvre. In real terms our funding has decreased."

Chris claims the additional cash sum available to Kington Primary, from all sources of local and national government funding, is £12,300 on a total budget of around £500,000. The 'wholly appropriate' 3.9 per cent pay award for teachers, when applied to existing employment costs, adds an annual £14,900.

"That's before taking account of the re-grading of our headteacher and her deputy. It's ironic that Ofsted criticised Kington for spending too high a proportion of the budget on payroll costs, and now we have no alternative but to increase that proportion," he says.

Irony, though, is not the issue. Chris concludes that Kington's 'insufficient resources' put all-important improvements at risk. With two children at the school and two more headed there, he's frustrated at the thought of future financial constraints.

Plans for a new entrance and additional information technology are already on hold. Chris admits that now 'more than ever' a dedicated PTA will be relied upon to provide special purchases.

"I understand that, as a body, we have to work within an available budget. But I became a governor to make a difference and fail to see how commitment can be expected from unpaid individuals without adequate resource."

Sponsorship is one way that the school can secure such provision, a committee links local businesses with curriculum-led opportunities.

Hereford's W H Smith store has already signed up. Manager Martin Crapper, keen to raise the profile of literacy, initiated a programme by donating prizes for a recently run competition tied in to World Book Day (see above).

Who pays, however, is a perception that rankles with Chris, especially in light of the county's 9.8 per cent council tax rise. But with local government diluting central government's intentions, Westminster is where the buck stops.

"What I am seeing is public deception on a grand scale. All the talk of additional money for education is simply not true," he says.