A VALE MP has challenged the Government to allocate more cash to schools in Worcestershire, claiming local children were being discriminated against.

In a letter to schools minister Jacqui Smith, Peter Luff, the conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire, warned that the funding gap between Worcestershire and its neighbours was continuing to grow wider.

He wrote: "You will be aware of the fact that if our county is to catch up with the national average it needs percentage increases in funding significantly above the national average.

"The law of compound interest means that if settlements fall short of the national average the gap in cash and relative terms will continue to grow with adverse consequences for the children we represent in parliament.

"I was alarmed, therefore, to see that your own tables show for 2006-7 an English average increase of 6.8 per cent but an increase of only 6.7 per cent for Worcestershire and in 2007-8 a national increase of 6.7 per cent against an increase in Worcestershire of only 6.5 per cent.

"You are clearly planning that the discrimination against Worcestershire should increase over the next few years and I find this both disappointing and deeply disturbing."

In a parliamentary answer to the MP this week, Ms Smith revealed that the average funding per pupil this year was £4,310. Birmingham gets £4,750, Herefordshire £4,150, Warwickshire £3,970, Gloucestershire £3,950 and Worcestershire £3,880.

Mr Luff responded: "There is no excuse for the scale of this discrimination against Worcestershire's schoolchildren.

"Why is a child over the border in Herefordshire worth £370 more than one in Worcestershire - and why is one the other side of our northern border in Birmingham worth a staggering £870 more?

"This may be a familiar and repetitive argument, but it is one we must carry on making for the sake of our children's future," he added.