Sir – I am really beginning to think that I must be living in some kind of ‘wonderland’.

How can a proposed selective Free Grammar School be described by Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member Melinda Tilley as a “brilliant idea” (Report, May 21) when Oxfordshire County Council reports categorically state that there is no need for more secondary school places in Oxford city and that any new school would inevitably further reduce the intake of existing schools.

A major impact of a ‘Free’ school, with an unregulated curriculum and with amateur staff, in colonised Oxford property paid for by tax payers, would be to suck scarce resources from schools (and county council) with already stretched budgets; schools which have made great strides forward in the last few years and which do not deserve being dragged back into an unviable and even more underfunded nightmare. Go away mad hatters.

Frank Newhofer
Oxford