SIR – Your front page coverage of the deeply concerned parents of children from north Worcester who will be unable to attend any of their first three primary school places this September is rightly distressing.

However, I fear that this story simply highlights what has been foretold for some years by residents living adjacent to any of the new housing developments sanctioned in the South Worcestershire Development Plan – that there is no recognition of the need for growth to be matched by necessary infrastructure provision.

If the three schools face an immediate and critical pressure on places, what will they face when the new residents move into their houses at Gwilliams Farm or Dilmore Lane in the coming months and years?

While some will be occupied by couples without children and some will wish for their children to attend either King`s Hawford or RGS The Grange – many might wish for their children to attend one of the three schools now facing a shortage of places. Simply forcing an additional temporary building into any of these school premises would at best be a very short term palliative solution which might cater for the first phase of homes next to Gwilliams Farm Shop but clearly not for the hundreds of families following next and subsequent years.

In the rush to build at all costs and thereby satisfy a `top-down` target for house building there has been a willingness by the construction industry to see this as an opportunity to boost balance sheets and for politicians to address a headline need.

Perhaps now there needs to be a pause, when all parties and especially the recipient communities which face these new neighbours can sit down and discuss what else needs to be provided to create sustainable, harmonious and well balanced communities. Failure to do so will cripple future generations – a poor legacy indeed.

DR MALCOLM NIXON

Worcester

Put the future in our hands

SIR – How dare Barack Obama tell the British people how to vote? As a head of state it is the equivalent of the Queen jetting off to the USA and telling American people how to vote in the presidential elections.

It is vitally important that we, the British people, grasp this last chance to regain our sovereignty, by voting to leave the EU on June 23.

Any organisation which has failed to have its annual accounts signed off by the auditors for the past 18 years (and the EU is one such) has to be extremely suspect: indeed, if it was a limited company, it would have been ordered to stop trading long before now.

Mr Cameron (a lightweight as Obama once called him) failed to negotiate the most basic right of the citizens of this country – that is to be bound by their own laws: we have seen many instances where attempts to deport criminals back to their country of origin has been thwarted by appeals to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that it would “infringe their human rights”. What about the rights of their victims? As far as I am concerned when they commit a crime they forfeit their rights.

You may recall how the Tories warned us, before the minimum wage was introduced, how this would cost jobs and drive small businesses under. Two years after its introduction they quietly admitted that it had not had the impact they feared. It is the same scaremongering tactics they are now employing again.

Until the laws of this country are again paramount then we can no longer rule ourselves and can no longer control our borders. If you want your future to be in our own hands then Vote Leave!

T MUNSLOW

Lower Broadheath

Experience in the real world

SIR – In the Worcester News I note that Mr Campion has written about his business prowess and Mr Darke has asked for more information about the other candidates.

Mr Campion has in the hustings continually referred to his successful business career. His county council CV says, Part time case worker for Mark Garnier MP Wyre Forest, agency worker for Wright Stuff SCHOOL:and Pertemps, a councillor, Wow! Is that the qualification of a person that wants to run a £204 million operation, I am sorry, you need to have experience in the real world In the last 40 years I have owned or been the major shareholder in companies as varied as aviation, manufacturing, mining and retail. I also set up a management consultancy business working for major companies in turnarounds, acquisitions and disposals I was a tribunal judge, a magistrate, audit chairman for Worcestershire County Cricket Club, a member of the English Cricket Board Discipline Commission, Chairman of the British &
Commonwealth Cricket Trust. Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute.

I have recently turned down the chairmanship of two large public companies so I can hopefully be your choice as the PCC. I would like to be able to return the experience that I have gained.
PETER JEWELL
West Mercia Police and Crime
Commissioner Candidate

Treating us with disdain
SIR – What is the Government up to? Why is Jeremy Hunt not holding proper negotiations with the junior doctors?


The Health Service, funded from our taxes, is important to every one of us, and yet Jeremy Hunt is not holding constructive negotiations with the junior doctors, and he therefore forced them to take action.


This shows this Government is treating the general public with disdain. If they cannot successfully negotiate with junior doctors, how can we trust them to negotiate a deal with Europe?


I have asked my MP, Harriett Baldwin, to implore Jeremy Hunt to get back to the negotiation table.
C R HOPES
Malvern