We are delighted that the strategy committee agreed on April 16 not to proceed with the proposal to rebuild Stanley Park High School on Stanley Road Allotments. However, many objectors to the proposal agree with us that the allotment site should have been eliminated from the options at a much earlier stage in the first place.

All the reasons given in the report to the strategy committee for not proceeding with the allotment site were articulated by residents at a public meeting on February 13 or in response to the council's own consultation.

Furthermore, the council should have known from the previous attempts to build a primary school on the allotments that access was always going to be a major problem.

Perhaps, we could be forgiven for saying "we told you so."

By eliminating the allotment site at an earlier stage or not including it at all, because of the known problems, the council could have spared much despondency among allotment holders for whom no realistic alternatives were offered, and could have spared much anxiety for residents concerned about increased traffic on narrow roads, not to mention the unnecessary public expense of abortive work on the site evaluation. After all, this is a statutory allotment and a designated green space much valued by the local community, particularly enhanced by the lavender project.

One of the lessons that we hope the council will learn from this episode is that the argument that the site has long been identified for use as a primary school no longer applies and that the safeguarded provision in the UDP should be removed in any future revision of the plans.

Finally, on behalf of the Stanley Road Allotment and Garden Society, we would like to thank residents around the allotment site for their excellent support in attending the public meeting on that rainy evening on February 13 and in signing our petition in such impressive numbers.

We owe this remarkable success to your support and we thank the Sutton Guardian for its coverage which has kept the issue in the public domain.

MAVIS PEART (Stanley Square) and CARL BROWN (East Drive)