Build the school and they will come

Dear Sevenoaks Chronicle,

Many of your readers will have been puzzled like me at the two stories next to each other on last week's front page.

The big picture story told how many families are faced with long school runs because KCC has not kept pace with the arrival of new families in Sevenoaks. But this is something the Town Council has recognised - and started to cater for - over recent years. This change in Sevenoaks isn't news.

The smaller story told how Paul Carter - KCC leader - had complained to the Education minister that failure to start the second school on the Wildernesses site 'could cost £4.5 million' in extra contract fees.

Isn't the answer obvious? Even the least numerate Kent County Councillor must realise that all the children filling our primary schools to bursting this year will need secondary schools very soon. Start building now - and sort out the admin issues while it's going along. Surely that's not too much to ask. After all, KCC is an education authority so it ought to be able to build a school!

Sevenoaks needs the places now, so we can educate our children here in the community where they live rather than training them to be commuters.


Yours sincerely




Tony Clayton