SIR - I read with interest your article in The Comet on March 13, entitled Race Track danger at school. I was surprised by part of the comment made by Councillor Ian Knighton regarding the back entrance to the school. He says Where the cars park, it is

SIR - I read with interest your article in The Comet on March 13, entitled "Race Track" danger at school.

I was surprised by part of the comment made by Councillor Ian Knighton regarding the back entrance to the school. He says "Where the cars park, it is a bit of a racetrack. We have been pushing for six or seven years about this. It requires some work such as a proper crossing. It would have been done years ago with money from development on the land at the back of the school, which has always been earmarked for housing, a development which Marilyn (Councillor Kirkland) has opposed".

While I have sympathy for the problem the article was highlighting, as a local resident affected by the build-up of school traffic behind the school, I am also part of the SOGS (Save Our Green Spaces) Group who are trying to keep this area free of development, and currently have a Village Green Application being heard through county. May I take this opportunity of reminding Councillor Knighton that it was agreed, at an NHDC local cabinet meeting, that any money from the sale of this land is not directly earmarked to any local spending, and to say otherwise is misleading.

Many residents are worried that if this area is developed, there will be more traffic problems in the area, not less, but these fears were not enough to sway the Baldock development committee in their voting for the development, in the last six or seven years.

However, Councillor Knighton is right to point out that Councillor Kirkland is opposed to the development. SOGS collected over 650 signatures from Baldock East Ward asking for the land to remain free from development. Councillor Kirkland is the only Baldock councillor to support our application, as 650 signatures make up most of her Baldock East Ward, and she has been happy to support us when she can.

ALISON GENTLE

Downlands

Baldock