ACADEMY RESOURCES OVER the past weeks, the council has expended considerable resources and inundated tax-payers, education professionals, governors and trades unions with information demonstrating why they should all support an academy in Darlington.

Even the publicly-funded Town Crier has been hijacked to sell the benefits of this facility.

It appears to be an all or nothing plan, as all other proposals have been simply dismissed.

The arguments in respect of Hurworth and Eastbourne schools are further undermined by the announcement that Branksome and Longfield will merge, operating as a split site school, with Branksome eventually closing in 2010.

An academy replacing these two schools now would be a much sounder approach, as proven high quality would be maintained in our collective secondary schools.

Such an academy would meet the original criteria required by the DfES and would fit the purpose they were designed for. - Councillor Charles Johnson, Darlington

BALANCE

WHAT a complete joke your article about the council's Eastbourne Academy Information session was.

Apart from council members and representatives from bodies who gain patronage from Darlington Borough Council, there was actually a maximum of half a dozen parents who spoke in favour of the proposed closure of Hurworth School.

Balance is one thing, distortion of the facts quite another. - Peter Dodd, Hurworth.

HERITAGE LANDMARK

SO Councillor Lyonette wants us to be patient whilst a heritage landmark is removed and replaced by acres of setts with a step in the middle to mark the margin between the carriageway and the footway. It is all right walking, but if you get the wrong side then look out!

We, the public, have been too patient if anything.

Had the public not been as patient as it has, then the council would have been ejected and replaced by a council that listens to what the public want.

In the year ahead, Coun Lyonette and the rest of the Cabinet will, doubtless, continue to hobnob with outside business interests and draw up plans for further developments changing Darlington from a historic market town into a nonentity.

Take a look at the Pease's Library, in Crown Street, and its new neighbour to see "the shape of things to come".

The beautiful St Cuthbert's Church will be cheek by jowel to Tesco with its aggressive marketing, its dominant position in the market place and an ever increasing range of non-food items.

Be patient, be damned if we will - John W Antill, Darlington.

BRING BACK FANS

IN response to Mr Robb, PR advisor to Darlington FC, I would agree that we have a lovely stadium which may well be paid for, but do football fans go to look at the stadium or to watch the football on offer?

Yes, the football has improved recently, but football fans are a fickle bunch and maybe he will one day realise it takes more than a few good results and a nice stadium to bring the fans flocking back.

On that note, we have never been a well-supported club, we can only hope that fans do come from around the area to boost attendance.

The only problem with that is, whenever we have had decent attendances in the past, the players have blown it and not performed.

The extra fans then don't bother next game and we're back to square one again.

Maybe the club should look at reducing things like the cost of match day parking and the cost of tickets as another incentive to bring in fans? - David Dickson, Darlington.

SAFETY AUDITS

DARLINGTON Borough Council has a safety audit in progress re taxi drivers using the bus lanes (Echo Jan 24).

I wonder if any safety audit was made for the one-way bus routes when the council decided to run 120 buses per hour in Priestgate, the narrow Cornmill Tunnel and through the pedestrian road crossing points at Crown Street/Northgate, Priestgate/Prebend Row and Tubwell Row/Prebend Row.

After all, this massive increase in traffic density would surely have a dramatic effect on the pedestrian environment and an audit would be vital.

If any audit was carried out, what was the outcome and what recommendations were made to integrate the buses with pedestrians?

The lease recommendation would be to install pedestrian crossings at the above points. So, for reasons best known to the council, nothing at all has been done.

Therefore, one may conclude that no safety audit was made, or, if there was, then it had been diluted for some reason or other.

I am sure that if the safety audit findings and recommendations were made public it may reassure the shoppers that they were given some consideration in the overall scheme.

Perhaps the council would provide a meaningful response to this important point? - L Hume, Darlington.