A NEWPORT councillor sparked a major row with the National Assembly yesterday, while standing down from the cabinet.

Ernie Watkins (pictured) was speaking at his last meeting as cabinet member for young people's services, after he failed to get re-elected.

Councillor Watkins launched his attack on the Assembly over an alleged shortfall in funds for Newport's sixth forms.

He claimed the Assembly had scattered sixth-form funds across all of Wales' local authorities, meaning some had too much while others - like Newport - did not have enough.

But a spokeswoman for the Assembly told the Argus no school would lose out on cash as a result of Education Learning Wales (ELWa) taking over responsibility for funding sixth forms from local authorities.

Councillor Watkins, whose replacement has not yet been announced, told yesterday's cabinet meeting: "The Assembly is tinkering too closely with what is happening in the community. They must stand back and allow other people to decide what's going to happen.

"We can't have Jane Davidson (Assembly minister for education) saying 'you can't have that'.

"We must be allowed to put in bids and manage our own affairs. We can't have the Assembly tinkering too much or watching too closely what is done." Using Bassa-leg Comprehensive as an example, Councillor Watkins said the school was £30,000 down this year.

"Some of the authorities were OK and had extra money, but Newport was one authority that needed more because it was successful in recruitment," he said.

"We are being punished for recruiting post-16 students."

But an Assembly spokeswoman said: "I can categorically say that sixth forms will not lose out on funding. The money was calculated and uprated to take account of new students. "There have been other changes in the formula used to distribute the general money to the local authorities, but the bottom line is that it's a matter for the local authority to decide how much money goes into education."

Council leader Sir Harry Jones paid tribute to the work Councillor Watkins had done on the cabinet, saying: "He was one of the success stories of this cabinet." Councillor Watkins said he saw losing his post as "an opportunity for other things".