Council bids its way out of nursery hitch

Leicester County Council has applied to the Government for more money to cover the cost of funding free nursery places for all three-year-olds in the county. The council had used a 'postcode lottery' for allocating nursery places when it discovered a shortfall in funding for places for around 300 children. Angry parents were further enraged when a local councillor claimed last week that the data used by the council to calculate demand for places was years out of date.