Ilkley Grammar School has had its bank account 'frozen' by education bosses in a desperate bid to reduce a projected £300,000 overspend.

With nine months to go to the end of the academic year, the school is not allowed to spend any money on books, stationery, equipment, non-emergency building repairs or special projects. The only money it will be allowed to spend is on paying utility bills and teachers' salaries.

Cash-strapped Bradford Council has tightened the screws on the school because it needs every penny it can get to pay for the massive reorganisation from a three to a two-tier system of education.

The move follows the failure of talks between head teacher Peter Wood, school governors and education officials to reach an agreement over how the deficit can be paid off.

A spokesman for Bradford's education authority said: "Until an agreement can be reached, the authority is only allowed to provide the schools with funds to pay staff, meet existing contractual commitments and to pay statutory utilities."

School governor and Ilkley district councillor Martin Smith said all the staff and governors at the school had tried to keep spending within limits set by the Local Education Authority.

"Basically it is impossible because we haven't got enough money. We don't get anywhere near the level of funding achieved by Leeds," he said.

He accused the education authority of not providing enough money to the school out of the education cash provided by the Government.

Chairman of the governors John Cockshott said that meetings had been held with parents to explain the situation.

He said: "It seems the council is thinking about this very positively and hopefully we will get a good outcome."

A spokesman for Bradford's education department said: "Legislation was introduced in April this year which states local authorities can only allow schools to carry deficit budgets in exceptional circumstances and only if the schools concerned can show that they will be able to repay the deficit within three years.

"Ilkley Grammar School has so far been unable to demonstrate how they would meet their projected deficit and talks are now ongoing between the local education authority, the head teacher and the governors."

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