THE legal battle over Caldicot head teacher Marjorie Evans has helped tip Monmouthshire's education finances in to the red.

Education and leisure heads say they anticipate an overspend of £400,000 for this financial year - with exceptional, one-off costs accounting for £170,000 of the total.

Of that, £77,460 relates to St Mary's Junior School, Caldicot - and 30 per cent of this figure is understood to cover council legal costs in its clash with head teacher Marjorie Evans.

The 57-year-old principal was suspended from the school after it was alleged she slapped an unruly ten-year-old boy.

Convicted of the offence at Abergavenny magistrates court, Mrs Evans was cleared on appeal at Cardiff crown court and returned to her desk on March 22 - 18 months to the day after she left her office.

Further costs are expected to be incurred by the authority once negotiations over a compensation claim by Mrs Evans are finalised.

Monmouthshire education and leisure cabinet members who met to discuss the anticipated overspend were told by Phil Cooke, director of lifelong learning and leisure: "The whole matter is not yet concluded but it will be nowhere near the more extravagant levels I have seen in newspapers."

Councillor Peter Fox, cabinet member for lifelong learning and leisure, told the Argus he could not comment on the total amount of legal costs incurred by the authority in its actions against Mrs Evans.

Councillor Fox pledged "no mainstream services will be cut", but added: "No overspend is insignificant because something has to be done to manage it. But we have to remember that a big part of the lifelong learning and leisure budget is spent on teacher salaries. We have no control over that."

Other costs to the department include £61,700 in industrial relations costs unrelated to St Mary's and a £31,000 trading deficit in the county's leisure centres.