SCHOOL CLOSURES: WHY are people arguing against a new school for Eastbourne and Hurworth?

I am a parent with one child in a secondary school in Darlington and two others in primaries.

I hope that all of my children will have the opportunity to learn in the new school and it is so unfair that a tiny minority of selfish people are trying to spoil the future of so many other children.

Every parent I talk to wants the new school to be built so please think of what is important for the children. - T Miller, Middleton St George.

I FIND it hard to sympathise with Darlington council chief executive Ada Burns' appeal to let her have her say (HAS, Nov 5). She has - and we have been listening to a series of conflicting decisions which demonstrate the lack of a long-term overall strategy.

In her March report, Margaret Asquith, director of children's services, expressed concern at the possibility of Hurworth getting foundation status and moving out of council control. She stressed the importance of using it to assist our other schools.

Then came the offer of a £25m City Academy, despite the fact that Hurworth did not comply with the criteria of an under-achieving school in a deprived area.

The acceptance of a City Academy is in direct conflict to the concern about Hurworth getting foundation status. It will be outside council control and cannot therefore be part of an overall strategy. It will be managed by a board of directors mainly appointed by the sponsors.

In order to improve results, academies have selective admission policies and high exclusion rates. In short, the academy directors will only be interested in their own results and will in fact be dumping low achieving and difficult pupils on other schools. We wait to hear the policy which will improve the education of all our children - Brian Fiske, Press Officer, Darlington Liberal Democrats.

LIKE your anonymous correspondent (HAS, Nov 7), I was at the council cabinet meeting on November 1.

The meeting was perfectly fine. Despite flashing cameras and tape recorders being pointed at the councillors, I thought that John Williams did well in coping with the distractions and everything was gone into properly with good talking points.

Who do these Share (Save Hurworth and Rural Education) people think they are? Do they live on the planet Zog? How can they be against getting a new £25m school for our kids? Don't listen to them councillors. Eastbourne parents - and I think most Hurworth parents too - are right behind you. - Eastbourne parent, Darlington.

I WAS disgusted by the behaviour of the taxi drivers and so-called responsible parents from Hurworth School at the demonstration on October 31. With parents encouraging children to scream and jeer, and taxi drivers blaring their car horns while blocking the traffic, it made for an ugly scene.

And what is the taxi drivers' complaint - that the council expects them to be fit and proper drivers before they get behind the wheel of their cabs by taking a test?

Next time the Hurworth protestors and their friends in the taxi trade decide to hold up the town centre, perhaps the police should consider handing out a few Asbos instead. - Name and address supplied.

IN his attack on David Cameron, John Williams (HAS, Nov 7) unwittingly confirmed what the Share campaigners have been saying all along: a City Academy will be run by a private business enterprise which will be responsible for appointing the headteacher, allowing selection of up to ten per cent of pupils and deciding its own exclusion rules.

So much for maintaining the "leadership and ethos of Hurworth school".

Whether or not you support David Cameron's politics (and remember the Conservatives support academies) at least he has come out with his views in public.

When can we expect Tony Blair, our MP, to do the same? - Mary McNeil, Darlington.