MORE money is being ploughed into adult education in Hampshire - but Romsey MP Sandra Gidley says it's going to the wrong places.

The Lib Dem backbencher has demanded a shake-up from lifelong learning minister Alan Johnson following a Parliamentary debate she initiated earlier this month.

The move has been supported by scores of pensioners in Hampshire, whose evening classes are being axed following decisions to offer more vocational courses to mainly younger people.

On July 24 the Daily Echo revealed how a Shirley quilting club that had been faithfully stitching for charity raffles for years was being axed due to a funding reshuffle.

Today 81-year-old Michael Flint has also spoken of his dismay after learning that his weekly drawing and portrait painting class at Shirley's St Mark's School was to be disbanded.

The Highfield-based vice chairman of the Southampton Arts Society said: "Everything has to be accredited, which is ridiculous, and certainly doesn't serve the needs of retired people and others who want to do leisure activities without taking qualifications."

The Daily Echo has discovered that adult education has been given a cash boost this year, with nearly £2m dished out to local authorities - £35,000 more than in 2003.

Statistics also show that some Southampton wards including Redbridge and Bitterne rate among the ten per cent most deprived parts of the country when it comes to education, skills and training.

Mrs Gidley said: "I don't have a problem with money going to those areas to help.

"But because you don't live in a deprived ward doesn't mean you don't have needs."