The decision of the Falmer school governors to launch a wide-ranging consultation on whether Falmer school should become a city academy is to be welcomed.

I hope any consultation will be city-wide, since decisions about Falmer affect all of us.

I believe the principal of city academies should be resisted and would oppose a city academy at Falmer.

It is unacceptable to hand over what is a public service to a private individual, for a payment of £2 million, while the Government is investing between £10 and £20 million of public money.

Such a school would be freed from the requirements of the national curriculum, from national pay and conditions of service and the "sponsor" would have enormous power over curriculum, choice of governors, salaries and conditions of service.

It would be taken out of Local Authority and, thereby, local democratic control.

It would bring selection back to our schools.

This, together with the recent White Paper, means the dismantling of our entire system of education, and the destruction of the comprehensive system.

I do not believe that what is proposed will service future children well.

Indeed the danger is that we will get even more division, polarisation and inequity in our schools.

-Councillor Joyce Edmond-Smith, Brighton