THE school closure debate has caused a lot of animosity for this Labour-controlled council and, as it tries to justify the closures, certain councillors are coming out of their corners fighting.

Councillor Derek Boden says that Affetside pupils cost the borough more to educate, and we need to create equity. Is that the same equity which has Affetsiders paying a lot more council tax on their property when, let's say, compared to a similar one in Radcliffe?

Councillors make decisions based on advice from officers who, at the top, are career-minded, highly paid and not usually originally from this area. We all assume that, as they are professionals, they know what they are doing.

My own dealings with this LEA left me thinking that they were incompetent or manipulative.

In 1999 I decided to take a full-time HNC course in Glasgow, and I needed help paying the course fees of £1,025. Government guidelines on higher education and all the college prospectuses said that LEAs help students doing degrees, HNDs and full-time HNC courses.

On approaching this LEA I was told that Bury only helps fund degree students. I checked my information then contacted the Dept for Education and Employment (DfEE) and they confirmed it. But I was again rebuffed by the LEA and the issue was only resolved when the DfEE gave me the page number, paragraph and sub-paragraph of the relevant government regulations to present to the LEA!

Incompetence? Or a cynical act by the LEA to save money and make people look good? Incidentally, about the time that news of local school closures was first aired by the LEA, the Bury Times reported that St Andrew's, Ramsbottom, had applied to build five new classrooms.

Affetside School has been no more than a small village school for well over 100 years. The same could be said for St Paul's, Ramsbottom. However, Ramsbottom is no longer a village and since the early 1980s, this council has allowed more than 1,000 houses to be built.

So, schools around 130 years old and only run by this LEA for just over 25 of them are to close, despite a huge increase in the local population.

I ask again: incompetence, or a cynical act for this LEA to save money and make people look good?

L. D. EVERETT,

Ramsbottom.