COLLEGES in West Yorkshire are in desperate need of more money.

That was the message from the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges, whose members travelled to London to press the case for extra investment.

They gathered at the House of Commons to draw the Government's attention to the need for enough funding.

No having the money could ultimately hit the future prosperity of the whole region, says members.

Among the delegation was Mr Jeff Dakers, chairman of governors at Huddersfield Technical College.

Chris Sadler, principal at the Technical College, said: "Mr Dakers and myself have been meeting Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman and the Learning and Skills Council as part of a national campaign to point out that in order to hit Government targets in post-16 education we need more money.

"We all recognise that in recent years post-16 education has been given more aid by the Government.

"But because the government wants us to specialise in 14-to-19 education we may have to turn away students for some adult programmes or raise fees.

"As a college, in order to stand still we need something like a 10% increase to meet all the Government aspirations but we will only get about 4%."

The aim of the lobby was to ensure that further education is allocated a fair share of funding for the years 2005 to 2008 as part of a Government spending review.

Caroline Rowley, regional director for the Association of Colleges in Yorkshire and Humberside, said: "If colleges don't get their fair share of the education budget, they will have to forget about extending vocational learning opportunities for 14 to 16-year-olds and other improvements for 16 to 19-year-olds."

The West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges represents 17 colleges with a combined budget of over £200 million and more than 250,000 learners.