IT is really difficult to keep a community active and together when those who claim to foster this spirit actually undermine the efforts of others.

Council leader John Byrne, quoted in a leaflet accompanying my tax bill, says that one of the council's "corporate priorities for 2003 is to develop a stronger community spirit".

This was the same tune he sang last year, but it rings very hollow indeed with the people of Affetside where the village school has just been closed by the local authority.

The combined school and chapel is part of Affetside's history. Built in 1840 by local people for local people using local materials, it doubles as Affetside's community hall where villagers of all ages can meet. There are real school-village links which have fostered a fantastic community spirit over the years. But all that is about to end.

The secretary of the church has publicly stated that if the church cannot maintain the premises once the LEA has withdrawn, then the building will have to be sold. This means that all the links built up between school and village will be destroyed for ever -- no more Christmas parties; no more Easter egg painting competitions; no more families singing carols around the crib built by the school children and villagers together; nowhere for all ages to meet.

I cannot believe just how pathetic and cruel this council has been to destroy our village for the sake of a few pounds. Its history, its life-blood -- for that's what children give a village -- and its future decimated by Councillor Byrne and his colleagues.

Yet he wants us to believe in his corporate priority of developing a stronger community spirit! How? Perhaps he will tell us exactly how they plan to breathe life back into Affetside and to rekindle its community spirit.

Councillor Derek Boden, via this Letters page, last year said that Affetside would need to be helped. We wrote to Coun Gill Campbell, the executive member for community development, asking for ideas, but she didn't even reply.

So was it all just empty rhetoric? Or will councillors Byrne and Boden prove to be men of their word?

JOANNE WILCOCK,

vice-chairman,

Affetside Society.