CLLR Howson (“Great achievements but our schools need more funding’: Oxford Mail, September 1) is right to lament the postponement by education secretary Justine Greening of a National (Educational) Funding Formula and how this will worsen educational underfunding across Oxfordshire, not least for the future provision of places in Oxford City.

The petition currently being raised by South and West Oxford parents which calls for a new secondary school (the Swan?) to be part of the Oxford City Council and Oxford University partnership plans for the regeneration of Osney Mead should nullify the unviable Meadowbrook College site in Old Marston.

Meadowbrook lies next to Oxford Green Belt meadowland and borders St Nicholas Primary.

This much valued environment could not not sustain any kind of entry road to a school which might accommodate up to 1,200 pupils, plus 150 at a newly built Meadowbrook; nor would increased school traffic flows benefit the soon to be introduced Headington Transport Strategy.

Incursion into the Marston corner of Oxford’s Green Belt would further threaten an already fragile ecology, both built and natural. Any attempt to direct traffic down Raymund Road to the single-track lane which leads to the Meadowbrook site must be resisted given its potential negative impact on local homes and on St Nicholas School.

Osney Mead, however, could sustain such a school, which would then draw children from Grandpont and South Oxford while relieving pressure for places at The Cherwell School, which could continue to draw pupils from across Marston and parts of Headington and ensure that pupils from William Street and John Garne Way would not be left stranded.

Meanwhile, The Cherwell School would of course also continue to draw pupils from Jericho, Wolvercote, North Oxford, and Cutteslowe.

BRUCE ROSS-SMITH

Bowness Avenue Headington Oxford