A PETITION calling on the Government to introduce fairer funding for Devon's schools has been presented to 10 Downing Street.

Campaign organiser Mel Stride, accompanied by Angela Browning MP, handed in the more than 700 signature-strong petition to Number 10 last Thursday.

The petition was launched by Mr Stride last autumn in response to Devon's school pupils being some of the worst funded nationwide.

Mr Stride, the prospective parliamentary Conservative candidate for Central Devon, and his team visited towns and villages across the constituency – including Okehampton and Crediton - offering parents the opportunity to add their weight and support to the campaign.

He also wrote to every school across the constituency highlighting the issue, and raising the possibility of collecting signatures from parents.

Speaking after presenting the petition Mr Stride, said: 'Along with a loving family, a good education is one of the greatest gifts that a child can receive but too many of our children are currently being failed by our education system.

'In Devon we are quite unfairly too far down the funding league table - despite the fact that our local schools have particularly high costs associated with rural travel, teacher recruitment and, in many cases, small school sizes.

'I am calling on the Government to urgently revisit the central government funding formula.'

The current Government allocations of funding per pupil ranks Devon as 148th out of 151 education authorities in the country – with only Leicestershire, South Gloucestershire and Herefordshire more poorly funded.

The figures mean that, as the new school year started in September, local schools are receiving £3,843 per pupil which equates to £659 less per pupil than Bristol , £3,655 less per pupil than the London Borough of the City of London.