BURNLEY’S GCSE results are poor because there are not enough middle class parents showing an interest in their children’s schooling.

That is the verdict of Lancashire County Council’s education boss Susie Charles, who said that problems in the town were ‘probably more down to the influence of parents than standards in education’.

But she said that the introduction of three new BSF (Building Schools for the Future) schools, which have just opened in Burnley, will help boost attainment by improving community relations.

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle said her claims were unfair and were an attempt to focus attention away from failures in the system.

Coun Charles’s comments came after the town was named at the bottom of a regional table compiled by the BBC looking at school leavers' results.

In the table, Lancashire has boroughs with both the highest and lowest proportion of GCSE students who achieve five or more A*-C grades in England.

Fylde leads the GCSE table while Burnley is at the bottom, ranked at 324.

Coun Charles, cabinet member for children and schools who represents the Lancaster Rural East ward for the Conservatives, said the difference in attainment levels in the county was ‘probably pretty historic’.

She said: “Fylde are better performing because they have more middle-class families living there.

“Middle-class parents generally have much more involvement with schools.

“What we need is a change in attitude and we are very confident that the BSF scheme will bring that.

“There are many parents in areas like Burnley who are overawed by the idea of coming in to school or helping their children with their education.”

Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle said: “You cannot heap all of the blame on the parents.

"I accept that parents must show an interest in their children’s studies but the fact that results are so bad in Burnley is the responsibility of the education authority."