PARENTS in Spennymoor have raised concerns over the difficulty of finding school places for their children within the town.

Many have been forced to place their children in schools in other towns.

At the same time, more than 1,000 new houses are to be built in Spennymoor, some with as many as six bedrooms and all designed for large families.

Once completed and occupied the number of children needing an education will far exceed the capacity of the town’s schools.

The campaign begun by Claire Coverdale to save Tudhoe Grange School (Echo, Sept 17) isn’t about sentimentally over a school.

It’s about local people addressing ignored infrastructural needs by wanting once-closed schools, whether through refurbishment or rebuilding, to be used once again as schools – so children can have a future – and not turned into yet more housing, which even Durham County Council’s planning officers and The Durham Plan see no justification for.

CT Riley, Spennymoor.