Public will decide

9:00am Thursday 14th September 2006

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The article in the Guardian concerning Stockton Heath Primary School, Should it stay or should it go?' must surely have convinced people of the reality of the whole situation. On seeing those photographs I was absolutely horrified. £3.4 million needed to fix that. No wonder taxes are so high.

If, after a thorough tour of the building, a few holes in the plaster in the cellar, old fashioned toilets in a Horsa building (which will not remain whichever option is chosen) and cracking plaster above a window are the worse problems that can be found, all the previous statements about the building have obviously been grossly exaggerated.

That building is not crumbling' or falling down.' It is, as British Heritage verified months ago, structurally sound.' Why was its professional opinion not accepted?

Why has the final' decision of the borough council's development control committee not been accepted? Why is another planning application being submitted?

Perhaps the angry labour councillor quoted recently in the Guardian has the answer: "To me this is a sign that the executive board wish to get this through irrespective of what was decided."

The previous Labour executive board had recommended demolition, but that was without having being given the full facts of the argument. Its development control committee however did receive the facts and voted seven to one against demolition. That was a fully democratic and supposedly final decision. So what's changed?

We have a new council and this Lib Dem executive board cannot claim that it did not receive the full facts. It did, but chose to ignore them.

In the initial stages, both Ian Marks and Celia Jordan pledged support to save the school from demolition.

It now appears that the Lib Dems had not only been in support of, but actively promoting the demolition option all along.

Pre-election promises of consultation, openness and transparency' have faded into thin air.

The public has a right to respect, openness, honesty and democracy. When it comes to the next elections and the question is Should they stay or should they go?' it's the public who will have the right to decide!

Julie Kueres Cobbs Estate