BOLTON'S schools are more than £2 million in the red.

Four of the borough's schools are among the 10 in Greater Manchester with the highest debts.

Ladybridge High School in Deane is in debt by a staggering £590,277 - the worst in Greater Manchester.

Second worst is Rivington and Blackrod School with a deficit of £421,400.

Fifth is Mount St Joseph Business and Enterprise College with £343,400 while St Joseph's RC High School and Sports College is in ninth place with debts of £220,610.

In total, 25 schools in Bolton were overspent at the end of the last school year.

Both Ladybridge and Rivington and Blackrod are in the Bolton West constituency of Education Secretary Ruth Kelly.

Cllr Carole Swarbrick, Bolton Council's executive member for schools and customer relations, said the local authority was working closely with schools to balance the books.

She said: "The schools have put together plans setting out measures on how they will reduce the deficit over several years and these have been approved by the finance department."

Cllr Swarbrick said that Ladybridge had significant debt because it was a new school.

She said: "This is quite a specific case because we did not get as much money as we had been led to believe by the Department for Education and Skills.

"But the school is applying for £200,000 additional money from the Department.

"All the schools are being proactive in reducing their deficit."

Cllr Swarbrick said there had been additional government funding in the local authority budget settlement and stressed that no sweeping cuts would be made to balance the books.

The total deficit across the country among schools was £126 million at the end of the last school year.

But the DfES said that the overspend by schools was half of one per cent of total school expenditure.

A spokesman said: "The vast majority of schools are in good financial health, with over 20,000 schools actually carrying a budget surplus at the end of the 2004 to 2005 financial year."

"The total deficit at the end of 2004 to 2005 was £126 million, down from £149 million the year before, a decrease of 15 per cent."