Primary school consultation Mountfield and Whatlington East Sussex County Council Dear Sirs I am ashamed as one of the local Members for the Darwell ward of Rother District Council, that you are contemplating closing down the Mountfield and Whatlington Church of England Primary school. I represent six Parishes and am well aware of the importance of the local schools, churches, doctors village halls and shops in keeping these communities alive. I have often argued, often against popular opinion, of the importance of bringing new housing and new blood into the villages to help preserve them and keep them alive. It amazes me that when each of the villages in this area is going to have to accept more houses, much of it affordable, by Government edict you can contemplate cutting down on one of the mainstays of village life especially without any obvious ability of the larger local schools to accept greater numbers. More houses mean more people, which means more children, which means more school capacity will be needed. All planning should be dictated by the future; we are one of the worst educated countries in Europe and here you are deciding that cramming more pupils from different areas into ever larger classes is the way forward rather than educating those children locally in their own environment where parental influence not only on them but also on the local teachers might be a better option and help the children learn better manners, be better disciplined and have a better chance of future employment through being taught in smaller classes. "The perfect storm" the Council and Diocese have helped to create sits uneasily with your avowed intent to support governing (school) bodies to develop leadership that will suit their school in the future. Get the schools right and the y will be full. Short term financial savings are often eclipsed by the costs of lost opportunities; to sacrifice the future of rural life on the altar of short termism, to close schools at the same time as encouraging building more houses and to pile additional (travel) costs onto parents is to stifle the existence we all enjoy so much in rural Rother and restrict our opportunity to overtake our European neighbours educationally. We must not forget by whom we were elected and what they expect of us for their children. This is Rother. I know you have held a public meeting and that many people objected to the proposed closure; please listen to them and perhaps consider alternatives such as amalgamating local shools under one overall head in the same way that the C of E does with its smaller Parishes Yours faithfully. Cllr. David Vereker, Darwell ward RDC .