All deserve to have our say

10:09am Thursday 31st August 2006

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WHEN I read Phil Hennessey's eloquent letter, August 17, regarding the demolition or bust situation at the Stockton Heath Primary School, he had me convinced it was the right way to go.

Then I thought, hang on a minute, who is being forward thinking and who is being reckless?

For Phil to say the older generation of Stockton Heath place nostalgia ahead of education is ludicrous and unworthy.

Who does he think provided him with his sound Stockton Heath education?

It is without question every parent and grandparent in the village, or anywhere else, require their children and grandchildren to be educated in a new state-of-the-art primary school.

To also imply that all residents of Stockton Heath should not have had any say whatsoever in what happens to the school and furthermore, that it should not be allowed to happen again; is against all educational and democratic standards of this country.

We are not quite in a totalitarian state yet.

The comparison Phil makes with the Kingsmead Primary School in Northwich is not a good one; it is without doubt a fine school, however, the school was built on a fresh site, on an estate with an abundance of children.

Again Phil decides to make the older generation of the village the villains of the piece' in saying they had no right to utter a word of protest in the Victorian building development.

Fortunately, for once, the developers were forward thinking people and saw the potential in the existing building; consequently no demolition took place.

It now sets the standard for the village.

Long may it remain so?

At the end of his little tirade, Phil mentions the people who whinge and moan, not a thing you can accuse the younger generation of surely, and complain that the village is not what it used to be.

Well I've got news for you, it's not the same and in another 20 odd years you will be making your own comparisons.

Today's young are tomorrow's old.

However, it is not buildings alone that give character to a village or town, it's the kind of people who live in it.

Stockton Heath has the kind of people who do their protesting quietly when they feel they are being treated in a roughshod manner, not once but twice.

If, by chance the verdict goes against the protestors, I trust that the ink is dry on the document before the bulldozer turns up one quiet Sunday morning and with a single charge renders the rest of the building useless.

As with Phil, I never get involved in issues of this kind and I am not associated with any protest group; neither was I educated at the school, I merely observe.

TOM BRITLAND Stockton Heath