BUY BOOKS: HOW many more times are the people of Darlington going to have to listen to senior local politicians offering what I believe to be completely misleading information on academies?

Once again we have Councillor Chris McEwan (HAS, Nov 18) stating that the council intends to carry through the leadership of Hurworth into a new academy. This is not for him or his council to decide.

In an academy, the private sponsor decides on the leadership team, the curriculum, selection and exclusion policies.

In addition, with the unanimous governors' vote on Hurworth, staff have made it quite clear that they have no wish to work in an academy.

So, Mr McEwan, your preferred policy would mean that there would be no Hurworth leadership or ethos left to transfer.

The council is spending thousands of pounds on glossy promotional material on academies - money that would be much better spent on text books for our children. - Ian Holme, Hurworth.

ACADEMY SPONSORS

THE council seems to think that it can have a say in the admissions to the academy when, of course, it knows otherwise.

The sponsor will decide which students will be admitted and no doubt will be pleased to accept students from the best performing school - Hurworth - but may well not be prepared to accept many students from Eastbourne.

The sponsor will "cherry pick", leaving the council with the less able students who will go to the "sink schools".

In common with council practice over many years it fails to maintain its assets and then realises that it has no money for repairs.

It now seeks to get its hands on money from the academy, by selling the site presumably, to repair the schools which it has let fall into disrepair.

If no extra funds are forthcoming, will the council amalgamate schools yet again, and sell off the sites and the playing fields for development? - John W Antill, Darlington.

EDUCATION DEBATE

IF the debate about education is to get anywhere, its participants need to recognise that real learning has to involve personal fulfilment and creative satisfaction - which means it has to be rooted in people's actual experience.

Some subjects lend themselves naturally to such an approach and should be the basis for teaching others. Thus cookery could lead directly into nutritional science, chemistry, biology, environment studies and social history. Something similar could be said of woodwork, metal work and gardening.

As for literature, it should consist of authors whom young people could immediately take to and enjoy - and that rules out Shakespeare, Milton and George Elliot etc.

If this programme were enacted it would go some way towards bridging the notorious gap between arts studies and science and replace failure with success for countless youngsters who now drop out of higher education. - Tony Kelly, Crook.

TRANSPORT FIASCO

INTERESTING to read our council chief's response (Echo, Oct 29) trying to convey reassurance to the residents, but the one-way bus system and the absence of the High Row bus stands will still discourage the remaining shoppers who will have to get used to it.

The council promised the residents a high-quality transport system in their Pedestrian Heart presentation, but this system imposed on usis a massive retrograde step to the previous user-friendly system.

This project is being designed on different planets. One team is trying to attract shoppers into the town and another team is restricting the access of traffic.

There were two lanes of all traffic entering the roundabouts from Parkgate, but we now have a bus lane and a normal traffic lane.

The bus lane is useless and empty as none of them turn left at the roundabout, so they use the normal traffic lane thus making only one lane useable with the traffic backed up to Geneva Road, one mile away, at busy times.

A bus stop has been relocated immediately on the Parkgate exit from the roundabouts. A dangerous location and a recipe for an accident.

It is amazing how this highways design lacking safety was evolved, or is it a computer error that should not have left the drawing office?

Can our elected council resolve this transport fiasco and give the residents a sensible system? - L Hume, Darlington.

ROAD REPAIRS

I THINK I may be able to help sort out the wrangling between Darlington Tory and Labour councillors over the impact of road repairs on traffic flows in the town.

If, as they claim, Tory councillors are worried about congestion in the town caused by road repairs, the answer is simple - they should forego any repairs in their wards and let residents in Labour and Lib Dem areas put up with the short-term delays as our roads and pavements get fixed quicker.

I suspect the resulting furore in the West End of town would soon silence the Conservatives' moans.

No place is perfect, of course. However, when the council is repairing roads all over Darlington and actively asking the people of the town themselves where those repairs are most needed, the Tories' criticisms do seem a bit perverse.

Maybe some of that famous Conservative common sense is required. - Simon MacDonald, Darlington.