Sir – In your headline article on proposed changes to school bus fees (June 20), the quote you attribute to councillor Melinda Tilley implies that she believes we have a choice whether to send our child to our nearest school or pay to send him to one further away.
This is not the case; we are in the catchment area for only one secondary school, which happens to be Burford School.
Our nearest school, for which we are not in the catchment area, is Carterton Community College. We have investigated Carterton’s priorities for taking non-catchment children and have found that out of eight criteria, we rank eighth on the list, so we are not optimistic that this would be an option for us.
It would seem that the right to free education is about to be removed from families such as ourselves in rural areas. I am surprised that the council cabinet member with responsibility for education appears to be unaware of this.
Charlie Allen, Alvescot
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here