PARENTS disillusioned with North Yorkshire's education services have banded together to field a candidate in the forthcoming local elections.

Voters will be going to the polls to choose their next county council on June 7, as well as their MPs.

But villagers from communities east of Richmond - including Brompton-on-Swale, Scorton, Catterick and Colburn - have decided they have had enough of traditional party politics in local government.

Instead, they will be championing 48-year-old accountant, Leslie Rowe, who will be fighting for a better deal for their children.

"It all began as a discussion outside the school gates when I was waiting to collect the children,'' said Mr Rowe yesterday.

"All the parents thought education should be a high priority and, in the end, we decided to launch our own campaign."

The group has already come across its first obstacle - it needs funds to register as a political party. However, Mr Rowe says a lack of finance will not deflect the "parent power" movement.

"Our prime objective is simply to ensure that education is a talking point,'' he said.

North Yorkshire has registered high in the education league tables consistently for some years, with a number of schools rated as excellent by Ofsted.

But Mr Rowe - who is married with three children of his own - remains adamant there is no room for complacency, insisting that the Parents for Education manifesto has growing support.

He said: "Not all the schools in our area have nursery places available and we think they should certainly be more widespread.

"We also feel that all children should be given the option of a special needs education, if that is what they require; at the moment, the onus is on parents to prove their children need additional help, which means they are the ones who must do all the running around.

"We must stand together and make education the number one priority for the county council."

North Yorkshire's education department declined to comment on the Parents for Education policies yesterday.

"We cannot comment on individual candidates standing for election," said a spokeswoman at County Hall.