It gave me much pleasure to read that Labour councillor Dave Harris is still taking a firm stand on keeping Thomas Lord Audley School open in Monkwick (Letters, March 18).

I live on the Shrub End estate and would like to know just what is being done here by our Lib Dem and Conservative councillors to keep up our fight for Alderman Blaxill School.

About 70 per cent of housing on this estate is now privately owned and this means that many of us have a considerable financial investment in the area in which we live.

I maintain we have a fundamental right to know what plans the county council has for the school property and land. Its almost manic determination to press on with closure is odd.

The double-talk about quality of education doesn’t add up, since the school records show a definite plus when it comes to added value. Pupils at Alderman Blaxill are more likely to have increased their chances of success.

South Colchester has largely become a residential area noted for more what it does not have rather than what it does. The north area beyond the town centre has Colchester General Hospital, the main railway station, walk-in health centre, leisure centre and now the football stadium.

So, what could the county be planning? We decidedly do not need more housing.

What was Ministry of Defence single-unit housing is now a large and growing area of blocks of four-storey flats, and local resources must increase.

This has benefited local primary, infants and junior schools as a large percentage of incomers have young families.

The answer is, therefore, staring us all in the face.

Within a very few years what will Shrub End need most? A local senior school.

Rita Pryor
Smallwood Road
Colchester