SIR. With regard to the redevelopment of Grey Court School.

With reference to your article of last week, I find Coun Doe's rather jaundiced comments singularly inappropriate, coming from the Education Spokesperson for the Conservatives, who were responsible for taking school places away from North Kingston when they closed the school that is now the North Kingston Centre.

He fails to take note of two points:

  • Many north Kingston parents already happily "put their future in the hands of the London Borough of Richmond" by sending their children to Teddington and increasingly Grey Court Schools.
  • The current proposal is for a joint initiative between Kingston and Richmond, as you correctly state in the article, building on the successful admission of Greycourt to the Kingston Town cluster of schools.

This proposal for a new Grey Court School under its excellent headteacher, Maggie Bailey, is by far the best workable proposal to bring more good school places to North Kingston that can be achieved, and this after many months of careful negotiation. It deserves the backing of the whole community.

Dave Ryder-Mills
Lib Dem Canbury
Councillor