With the greatest of respect, I feel I must question the chairman of governors at Philip Morant School over her recent press release.

How can digging up a public, grassed open space and replacing it with tarmac to create little more than a gated service road not be a loss of open space?

Also, if it is so vital, how come it has been on the back burner for a decade?

How will it stop congestion at the start and finish of the school day, if it is for deliveries and emergency access, unless parents can use it to drop children off safely?

May I also comment on Councillor Julie Young’s comments in Friday’s Gazette? While I fully agreed with her that Sir Charles Lucas School building is no longer fit for purpose and, like her, too, I haven’t heard any logical reasons why we shouldn’t welcome £130million investment in our schools, the trouble is how that money is going to be spent.

Maybe she should talk to her fellow Labour councillors in Berechurch, who have tried, but failed, to save their school; or go door-knocking in Shrub End to see how the parents of children attending Alderman Blaxill School feel about the loss of their community school.

This whole fiasco surely heightens the need for Colchester to become a unitary authority, so we can apply for our own funding for schools and the likes.

Then, people like Lord Hanningfield and his apparatchiks at County Hall won’t have the chance to ignore 96 per cent of the population of Colchester!

Mark Warner
Redwood Close