MY motive in writing to you some weeks ago was to open a debate on Sir William Borlase's School which should have started a long time ago and to give it the focus which was missing.

That certainly appears to have been the outcome and the article in the Free Press a few weekends ago was helpful, particularly the comments by Dr Peter Holding and the map showing the catchment area.

I can agree with Dr Holding that I do not see any justification for increasing the school's capacity.

However, there appears to be disagreement over one very important statistic. I understand from an impeccable source that, of the 116 pupils who had up till a fortnight ago been offered a place at the school for this September, only 21 are resident in Buckinghamshire. This clashes enormously with the figure Dr Holding quotes and is even more surprising when accounting for the probable sibling proportion and the number of source schools within Marlow, Bourne End and my ward.

It would be very helpful if the correct figure could be published.

I am not seeking arbitrarily to exclude pupils from Berkshire or Oxfordshire that would be manifestly unfair and illegal. Where I believe the schools' governors have erred in seeking to follow the Greenwich principle is in failing to take account of the availability of other schools, and there is no doubt that Maidenhead is extremely well provided.

It is significant that some schools in Maidenhead refuse to admit children from Marlow despite nearby residents sending their children to Sir William Borlase's. I and many with whom I have discussed this subject cannot believe the school would be taken to task for altering the circle somewhat to exclude the inner parts of Maidenhead for that reason. By the same token, if the school is genuinely not seeking to cream off the top 120, the law would surely allow it to nominate eg Spinfield, Danesfield, Frieth, Burford, Holy Trinity, Foxes Piece, Bisham, St Peter's as the preferred source schools, with an outer ring to take up the surplus should the source schools not yield enough qualifying pupils.

I have written in similar vein to this to Dr Holding, and am sending copies of both letters to Cllr Mike Appleyard.

Cllr T Dunn

Member for Hambleden

Valley District Ward

Wycombe District Council

Terrington Hill

Marlow