A PETITION demanding the end of continued under-funding of the county's schools was delivered direct to Tony Blair at Downing Street by headteachers from West Devon on Tuesday.

In an unexpected move, the Prime Minister came out of No 10 to meet the delegation of headteachers, parents and governors, which included Okehampton Primary School headteacher and campaign spokesman Brian Cunningham,

Okehampton College head Chris Powell and Tavistock Primary head Joe Flynn,

More than 56,000 signatures were collected on the petition calling for fair funding for Devon schools.

Mr Blair listened for a couple of minutes as the teachers explained their case for fairer funding and promised to look into the matter further, before heading to the House of Commons.

Torridge and West Devon MP John Burnett, who arranged the

Downing Street visit, said getting Tony Blair to speak with the teachers had been a 'fantastic coup' which gave them hope for a real breakthrough in funding.

The delegation met Devon MPs at the House of Commons to enlist support for the campaign before heading to Downing Street to hand over their petition at 3pm.

Mr Cunningham said it was the 'icing on the cake' to meet Tony Blair and have a chance to explain in person the unfairness of the funding system to him.

'We must get Devon's voice heard. Let's get funding for Devon schools on a level playing field. We are not looking for special treatment, just fair treatment,' he said.

Okehampton College principal Chris Powell said if the Government fully-funded the high cost of school transport in Devon and increased school funding per pupil to the national average it would make an enormous difference to his school.

He said: 'It would enable us to reduce class sizes, and make sure youngsters have got access to the right resources.

'The Government is asking us to raise standards, but to achieve that it's very important to raise the funding. This is just the start of the campaign — we have got to keep hammering away.

'The most important thing was that the Prime Minister stood and listened and that was more than any of us could have hoped for.'

Mr Burnett arranged the Downing Street visit, and buttonholed Mr Blair's communications director — and former Tavistock Times journalist — Alastair Campbell about the issue while the petition was being handed in.

Mr Burnett said he had been campaigning with a cross-party group of MPs to redress the funding balance in education.

He said: 'For 25 years we have been discriminated against as far as education expenditure is concerned, and successive governments have done nothing about it.'

Mr Burnett said the delegation was able to bring home to the Prime Minister the impact the large school transport costs in a rural county like Devon have on education.

'At last, we now seem to be making some progress,' he said, but he urged the Government to review its school funding formula.

'We have a huge school transport bill in Devon, for primary schools and secondary schools,' he said.

Mr Burnett also said the way central government measured deprivation when calculating education funding levels tended to favour the big cities, and did not fully take into account problems faced in rural areas by smaller populations.

The campaign aims to highlight the disparity in funding of educational authorities across the country. Currently, the national average funding for each school pupil is £3,127. In Devon, the average funding is £2,932 — a gap of £195 per pupil.

In a secondary school with 1,000 pupils that equates to £195,000 — enough to pay for around eight teachers.

As a largely rural county, Devon faces one of the highest school transport bills in the country. It currently stands at £17.5-million, which means more than six per cent of the education budget is committed before a single child is taught.

The Government provides £12.8-million towards the school transport bill, leaving a shortfall of £4.7-million. Campaigners say if the cost of school transport was fully funded centrally, this would allow an extra £50 per pupil to be spent in schools.

Mr Cunningham said he wanted to thank all the parents, governors and teachers who signed the petition, and had made it such a success in a short period of time.

The petition comes at the start of a consultation period on local government finance. It was launched following the publication of a consultation document by the Government.