SELL off your old folk's homes, civic halls and sports centres and leave education alone.

So said Tory leader David Higgin, who stunned councillors at Wednesday's meeting with a last-minute call to protect school budgets.

"This council has failed miserably," said Coun Higgin. "You simply blame government for lack of cash, now the chickens have come home to roost.

"This Labour council has hit an all-time low by hitting school budgets, which will be fought tooth and nail by the Tory group."

Coun Higgin's amendment demanded selling or leasing all old folk's homes, halls and baths, along with putting home care, business rate collection and some library functions out to tender.

"I estimate this would save £4 million if all our measures were implemented, sufficient to remove all threats to education.

"Do not let children's education subsidise dogmatic views about the private sector."

Labour's deputy leader Coun Derek Boden retorted: "If he thinks that simply selling off a building or service makes it cheaper, he is being naive.

"Private businesses are run for profit, the only way they can make it cheaper is by driving down wages and conditions of the people who work in that service.

"Sell off our old folk's homes as a job lot? We don't do things like that here."

And Liberal Democrat leader Vic D'Albert said he was appalled at the amendment which would devastate local services.

"It's not just a financial matter but the cost and damage to the individuals who use these services.

"Old people could end up living in homes that don't have the same standards, shifted to the other end of Bury on the grounds of cost-effectiveness and higher profits.

Coun D'Albert added: "This is not the way to run local services, this is supporting the attacks on local government by this Tory government. We might as well call it Bury MBC Ltd."

Coun Higgin's motion was seconded by deputy leader Bill Johnson.

"I don't totally agree, but I am concerned about these horrendous cuts in education. I have had sleepless nights thinking about it," he said.

"I agree the Government has not played fair with us, but I make a heartfelt plea to ease these cuts."

Labour's Wayne Campbell said the Tories should be defending services, not selling them.

And his colleague Steve Perkins said the council's in-house team had already won most contracts against private competition, and any profits came back to the council.

Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats voted out the Tories' amendment.

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