WE are writing to express our horror and outrage at hearing the proposals for Longtown Community Primary School.

We have lived in Clodock, adjacent to Longtown for nearly 24 years and all our four children benefited from the excellent primary education they received at Longtown School. Our children had very different personalities and educational requirements, however they all received an excellent start via our primary school.

A major advantage of bringing up a family in the Longtown area has been the mixed social and economic environment, which was reflected in the school population. The school is fully supported by the wider community as it is seen as an important hub of the community. This benefit was not only reflected in the excellent fundraising by the PTA, staff and members of the community, but in the social contact the local children have with their local community. In the past we have attended functions with primary aged children mixing with and learning from people from a wide range of ages and experience.

If there is no school in Longtown the heart of the village will be torn out and the community as a whole will suffer and never recover. Our wider community including Llanveynoe, Craswall and Michaelchurch is not only bound together by the catchment area of our pyramid of schools, but also by our group of church parishes and of course our group parish council. The focus for our young families will turn towards Ewyas Harold, which has no group in common with Longtown. They will find it easier to go to the shop and post office in Ewyas Harold rather than to support what we have in Longtown. The community has worked hard to maintain these services and we now have a modern shop which has won many awards. What will happen to it?

Young parents will not like the idea of their very young children travelling by minibus to Ewyas Harold, so no doubt they will take them by car (increasing the carbon footprint). The knock-on effect of this will be that it will be much easier to take their pre-school children to Ewyas Harold Playgroup, than to drive back to take them to the one in Longtown. Individuals, the school and the community fought hard for the funding for a demountable for pre-school within the school grounds. The building is also used for a baby and toddler group attended by the health visitor. What will happen to these groups? Will the older people take such as interest in the school's events and progress when it is outside their community? Will they travel the distance to support events?

It seems to us that the proposals have been drawn up by supposedly professional individuals who clearly show a lack of understanding of our community and other communities in the county and a lack of understanding of distances and complexity of travel exacerbated by the geography of the area between Longtown and Ewyas Harold. Do they appreciate the difficult and dangerous access to and from Ewyas Harold School? There has been a lack of financial information. The proposals have been based on outdated information about a general drop in the birth rate. Obviously in small rural communities the birth rate is going to fluctuate far more than in urban catchment areas. It also seems that more recent statistics than the ones used to base these proposals on, show a rise in numbers. Certainly there is currently a baby boom in our school's catchment area and the village is expanding, bringing more families into the areas, for whom the school has been a significant factor in their decision to move to Longtown. Even for older newcomers the school has been one of the reasons for moving here.

It is frightening that the county council was unaware of the extent of the proposals that were published and significant that the national association of headteachers have passed a vote of no confidence in Dr Menghini and her senior officers.

We are no longer directly involved with the school as our own children are now grown up and have left home. The presence of the school is still important to us as a focus for the future of our community and as a place which we can use for our own activities. We are writing not only on behalf of the life of our own school and community but on behalf of all the schools and communities in the county that would be affected. Looking at the proposals for other schools we can see that there will be other schools and communities in the same boat. What about the proposal to amalgamate St Josephs RC and Brampton Abbotts CE? On the face of it, and we must admit we know nothing of the two schools and their communities, it would seem to us that there would be even more objections here. Ecumenism may well be a state to aspire to, but is it the place of the children's services to achieve it in this way? Where is the thought and sensitivity behind all these proposals? Proposals that aim to promote discussion?' Hardly. They are far more likely to produce knee-jerk reactions and a total refusal to face any change whatsoever. If someone had set out to be controversial and divisive, they could not have done a better job!

We strongly demand that the current proposals be totally withdrawn and that a professional consultation process begins with schools and communities with no pre-conceived plans in mind. This will give the directorate the opportunity to communicate some of the current and future difficulties which we clearly understand that they will have to address in the future. The directorate will also benefit from the experience and knowledge of the wider community on the impact and implications of any future changes. We are sure that a collective approach to these complex issues will improve the decision making process.