I STRONGLY believe Building Schools for the Future is an utter waste of taxpayers' money.

Since the Labour government has been in office it has ploughed hundreds of thousands of pounds into improving the building structure of our Burnley schools -- what a dreadful, sinful waste of money if all the schools are now to be demolished, when half the world is starving and living in poverty.

On a smaller scale, parents and friends of St Theodore's have raised over £13,000 for the upkeep and refurbishment of the school chapel -- is this money also to have been donated for nothing? Is the chapel to be demolished too?

Secondly, regarding the proposed closure of St Theodore's Sixth Form. It is a well known fact that sixth forms attached to schools obtain better results.

St Theodore's 6F is in the top 45 sixth forms in the country (Guardian newspaper) -- it is thriving -- it serves Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale and the Todmorden areas, and apart from Roman Catholic students, many other Christian and Muslim students choose to continue their education at St Theodore's in a well structured, happy and caring environment. Students begin sixth form as children and leave as young men and women.

Not all wish to go through this stage of their lives in a larger college community. This must be so or the sixth form would be empty and everyone would be attending Burnley College. Two community colleges in Burnley? One would certainly be a white elephant.

JEAN JONES, Myrtle Grove, Cliviger, Burnley.