Sir – Your editorial (January 27) expresses concern about Oxfordshire County Council’s approach to Free Schools and, in particular, that its support implies a shirking of the council's responsibility to ‘deal with overcrowding [in schools] and in such a way that it is targeted at those areas where pressure is greatest’.

I can assure your readers that this is not the case. The council has, for some years now, welcomed a diversity of school provision. What matters is that every community is served by a school which meets its needs. The council’s overriding responsibility to ensure sufficient provision remains and if, in some areas, Free Schools can make a contribution to that provision (and a contribution which is supported by the community) then we shall be pleased to support those who seek to establish them. It is worth emphasising that the council's duty is to ensure sufficient provision and not, necessarily, to make that provision.

Indeed, in the future, the presumption will be that new schools will not be provided by the council in the first instance and only when other options (such as Academies, Free Schools, Foundation schools and Voluntary Aided schools) have first been explored and exhausted.

Michael Waine, Cabinet member for school improvement, Oxfordshire County Council