LABOUR have been accused of reneging on its promises after the Government unveiled controversial plans to impose top-up fees of £3000 a year on university students.

Maintenance grants, which were scrapped in 1998, will be brought back at a rate of £1,000 a year for the poorest students from families earning under £10,000.

The Government has finally admitted to parents and students that it has broken its promise not to introduce top-up fees. You can never trust a Labour education promise again.

Arbitrary targets to provide university and college places for 50 per cent of young people downgraded and undermined the importance of vocational education and enticed students onto unsuitable courses, only for them to drop out with massive debts.

With regards main stream education, under New Labour 50,000 children play truant each day, attacks on teachers have quadrupled and a quarter of 11-year-olds can't read properly. New Labour said their priority would be "education, education, education", I don't think so.

Andrew Morgan

(Councillor Hulton

Park Ward)