THE leader of Chorley Borough Council has been on a mission to London to ask for £105,000 taken from the authority by central government to be returned.

The cash was taken out of the council's biggest grant from the government and is to be used to fund sixth-form colleges -- something Chorley borough does not even have.

Councillor Jack Wilson, along with Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle and council director of finance George Graham, met the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions junior minister Alan Whitehead.

They asked for the £105,000 -- the equivalent of a 2.5 per cent rise on council tax -- taken out of the revenue support grant to be given back to the council to provide much needed cash for services.

Coun Wilson said: "The government decided that every district authority would pay something towards responsibility for sixth-form education being transferred from county councils to learning skills councils.

"As we are not an education authority and the only borough in Lancashire with no responsibility for sixth-form college, we cannot understand why we have lost £105,000. It was an anomaly."

Coun Wilson said the minister assured the Chorley delegation that the Government would try and help the council for next year's budget.