Academy '“ some questions remain

Like Dr James Walsh, I have a personal interest in Littlehampton Community School, which two of our children attended.

But his letter (Gazette, March 20) ignored some important facts and failed to raise a couple of essential questions.

These are: what will be the composition of the new governing body and how will it be chosen?

What will the Woodard Trust be getting in return for its two and a half per cent of the money required to set up the new academy?

But there are fundamental issues here.

The government has responsibility to furnish our schools with necessary funds: why is it refusing to provide those funds for Littlehampton Community School unless plans for a controversial new academy are accepted?

Why is there a policy for taking schools out of local democratic control and putting them in the hands of unelected bodies on payment of a small proportion of capital funding?

Taxpayers' money is to be spent, why will its spending not be decided by elected representatives?

John Roberts, White Horses Way, Littlehampton

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