FRUSTRATED teachers and parents joined hundreds of disgruntled residents in protest on Monday furious over education cuts and the loss of public services.

The crowd brought traffic to a standstill as they marched from Ducketts Common, in Turnpike Lane, to Haringey Civic Centre ahead of a full council meeting.

Demonstrators warned the depth of the cuts were among the worst in recent history exceeding those enforced by Margaret Thatcher's Government in the Eighties.

Haringey NUT and its members got involved after 51 jobs at the borough's Professional Development Centre were axed by Haringey Council sending them to the dole queue.

The centre is made up of former teachers who use their years of experience to help train Haringey's new teachers and support schools in raising standards by working with special needs students or tackling literacy.

A primary schoolteacher from Seven Sisters said: "The saddest thing it is the children who suffer.

The staff at the professional development centre provide an invaluable service to teachers in schools. As much as we would like to we can't do everything and really rely on their support."

Headteachers are anxiously waiting for their budgets for the coming academic year but will not receive additional funding to deal with a rise in inflation.

A spirited campaign led by Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone to ensure Haringey pupils received the same funding as schools in Islington and Hackney who face similar challenges ended in disappointment.

Many teachers are angry the Home Officer minister has not done more now she is in Government and have dubbed the pupil premium, money awarded to schools per pupil from disadvantaged backgrounds, a con.

Julie Davies, secretary of Haringey NUT, said: "Lynne Featherstone did a good job making noise about fairer funding for Haringey pupils, but now Haringey pupils are even worse off.

"The pupil premium has been funded by cuts to other grants already in the education budget. It is just being redistributed."

Ms Featherstone defended her position and said that it was under a Labour Government that Haringey's schools had lost out to the tune of £1,300 per pupil each year and insisted the pupil premium was new money.

She said: "The pupil premium will mean an extra £4.5 million for our local schools.

"This is new money and schools can then decide how best to use it without any interference from Whitehall."

She added: "The Liberal Democrats are determined to reform the underlying funding system to get a clear, transparent and fairer national funding formula based on the needs of pupils. The department of education will be consulting on this in the spring, so watch this space."