I REFER to the recent article in the Bolton Evening News "Education chiefs justify £1m rise in cost of school", namely Queensbridge School, Farnworth.

Having read the article, who did they justify it to, because they certainly haven't convinced me, by any means. The original budget was £1.5m and is now £2.45m -- an extra cost of no less than £950,000 -- or 66 per cent, which is totally unacceptable to the council tax payers of Bolton.

At a Scrutiny Committee meeting, Cllr Linda Thomas said that 50 per cent of the increase was due to increased building costs inflation. She later says "the majority of the extra costs are due to inclusion costs for disabled access etc, which were not included in the original budget". Since disabled provisions have been in force since 1995, why was nothing included in the budget and, as Ron Shambley said in his letter of August 14, it is despicable of politicians to hide behind this section of the community in this way. Clearly money should have been included in the budget, and there is no excuse why this was not done in the first place. Now, which story is the right one, councillor?

At this point Cllr Cronnolley asked about site conditions and Cllr Thomas replied that these had not really had any on costs. This is completely contrary to her statement in the Bolton Journal only 10 days before when she said that these costs had risen due to the change of site from the original school site (rejected by the Dept of Education in London) to open land nearby. Again, I ask, which story is correct?

My own interpretation of the site issue is that, originally, the new school was to be built on the existing site (Brownfield) which would be very expensive, and this was why the Dept of Education rejected the scheme and suggested the alternative site on open land (Greenfield) to reduce costs, as this is normally a cheaper alternative.

As for the rise in building costs of 50 per cent. Everyone in construction knows that costs have risen dramatically, and adequate budgeting should have been in place at budget stage.

O A Davies

Kennedy Drive

Little Lever, Bolton