Little-used school will have to be sold off

Although education chiefs have insisted that they do not intend to close the school at present, they will eventually have to close under taxpayer pressure.

A school for a handful of children is not viable. It may then look that they were following local wishes.

Do local parents then want the probable land sale open for more traveller speculation or a large housing estate?

Essex County Council has the ability to enforce "truancy" on parents whose children do not attend school.

If the traveller community is sincere in its requirement for integration and the need for its children to be educated in the same manner as others, then why are they not subject to the law in this respect?

If the police and emergency services are unable to enforce or service the area then is Essex County Council in the same position?

Why is this "ghetto mentality" allowed to exist?

Max Aitkins
Roosevelt Road
Laindon

...The village children were taken out of Crays Hill School not because of so- called racism, but because their education was being severely affected by the truancy and non-attendance of the traveller children. Daily differing class sizes created inconsistency and interrupted many projects children were working on. I was both a parent and a governor at the time, so I saw it happen with my own eyes. My own child was affected and my protestations as a parent and governor were ignored and treated with contempt by those charged with providing equality and continuity of education at a higher level. This school should be shut down forthwith and returned to its community to use for its own benefit, either a nursery or adult education. The travellers should be stopped from abusing services that are paid for by law-abiding, taxpaying members of the public. This is an outrage and has gone too far at great financial cost to everyone except the travellers.

Kim Gandy
Wickford