A DELEGATION has travelled to London to challenge census figures which, it says, have lost Richmondshire £150,000 of Government cash.

District council chief executive Harry Tabiner, leader John Blackie and Richmond MP William Hague visited Treasury Minister Ruth Kelly.

Figures produced by the Office of National Statistics after the 2001 census indicated that the district's population had dropped by 4,200, thus lowering the amount of Government funding the district receives.

The district council said the figures were misleading, and did not include military personnel who gave their home addresses and not Catterick Garrison as their place of residence on the day of the census.

Mr Tabiner said a local enumerator noted that many of the census forms she saw gave an alternative home address.

He said this was probably due to census rules on places of usual residency.

"Unfortunately, these have produced a false impression of the military population in the district because many of the soldiers living in the area would have been assigned to residences elsewhere,"he said

If an anomaly can be proved, the council would be in a better position to seek compensation.