GOVERNORS at St James's School, Farnworth have agreed to pay their "cash strapped" former headteacher £17,500.

They dipped into school funds to "put an end to the issue" after Mr Chris Hampson was sacked in February last year and four weeks after he started High Court proceedings.

Mr Hampson, who was awarded the OBE for services to education, will be paid three months salary in lieu of notice after his solicitors highlighted his "acute financial difficulties".

The school solicitor Mr Michael Darlington says the payment is "a gesture of goodwill" in line with "the Christian ethos of the school."

But he also criticised Mr Hampson for issuing a writ against the chairman of governors David Vickery over the failure to pay money agreed during an industrial tribunal.

Mr Vickery insisted there was never any time limit set for the money to be paid, adding: "In many ways payment of this cash goes very much against the grain, but we are hoping to be reimbursed. "There's no getting away from the fact that a writ has been issued and we are reliably informed Mr Hampson is facing appalling financial hardship. It seems only proper that we settle this matter once and for all."

The school has already submitted an application for reimbursement to the Funding Agency for Schools - a Government organisation which holds cash to pay running costs and administer grants in the Grant Maintained sector.

At his home in Greenmount, Bury, Mr Hampson, who has previously refused to comment on his dismissal, said: "Mr Vickery and the governing body agreed to pay me this sum because of the writ, it has nothing to do with my personal circumstances.

"Mr Vickery has never once in the past 18 months taken account of any financial difficulty I have suffered since being dismissed. "Nor has he given any thought to my wife who was dismissed from her teaching post at St James's and who has suffered ill health for some time.

"The fact that I have had to hang on for more than 10 weeks for payment is simply unacceptable. The whole situation is an absolute disgrace and outrage."

This week Mr David Bowes took up his position as the new headteacher of St James's. Mr Vickery, said: "Obviously I and my fellow governor colleagues are anxious to ensure David Bowes starts with a clean sheet."

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