BICESTER’S MP has rebuffed an open plea from the boss of a schools sports scheme to get its funding reinstated.

Tony Baldry MP said schools should decide whether to fund the North Oxfordshire School Sports Partnership rather than it getting money direct from the Government.

Yet a head said he feared cash would not be available in school budgets.

The partnership oversees the district’s 18,500 children in 56 schools and runs teacher training, sports activities and competitions for ages five to 19.

But partnerships were was one of the casualties of the Government’s spending review last month.

Partnership development manager Carl Hamilton wrote: “I fully understand the challenging economic environment and the difficult decisions that your Government has had to take, however I feel that its decision to completely cut funding for school sport is deeply damaging and extremely short sighted.”

The partnership had boosted participation in sport from 25 to 90 per cent in its six year life in Cherwell district, he said.

But Mr Baldry said it should be up to schools to choose whether to pay for the service instead of “ring fenced” funding from Whitehall to the partnership.

He said: “Head teachers can’t keep on saying to ministers that they want for more education budget devolved to them, then complain when that’s exactly what ministers do.

“Money is either spent by the Secretary of State in ring-fenced pots in the Department of Education or that money is passed down to schools.

“I firmly believe schools should be supporting sport, and supporting a wide range of sport.

“If the sports partnership is valued, then it’s an initiative schools should be supporting out of their budget. So far as humanely possible, money should be devolved and given to schools and it should be for head teachers to decide how to use that money.”

The partnership has £250,000 a year running costs but this runs out in March, leaving a question mark over its future and 35 full and part-time jobs.

Head teachers across Banbury, Bicester and Kidlington are in talks over how the service could be retained.

Paul Ducker, headteacher at Glory Farm School, Hendon Place, Bicester, said: “There is an element in terms of choice that we can direct funding to this initiative if we feel it’s important, but not everyone does.

“The other issue is the Government say it will passport that money to schools, but we have no assurance our budget will increase to reflect any money diverted from an initiative like the sports partnership.

“I would feel happier that the money was ring fenced for use by the sports partnership.”

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said: “We’re giving heads the freedom to make more of the established network of school sport partnerships but without being tied down by centralised targets and a bureaucratic blueprint set by ministers.”