I WISH to comment on Coun Ruth Potter’s comments (The Press, June 20) that “an extraordinary meeting was not necessary, and that if parents in the area had sent their children to Burnholme, it would still be going strong”.

Burnholme Community College is still going strong with lots of support and a dedicated team of people fighting to survive, for everyone concerned, this is a very good school that needs to be kept open for all our community.

Can Coun Potter not see that with the uncertainty hanging over the school, local parents and children will opt to go to the other schools in the surrounding area?

The council has to make cut-backs, but they are still spending approximately £43 million relocating to their new headquarters. Closing Burnholme will see short-term savings.

The sale of the land would certainly bring in much-needed revenue, but in the long term it will cost much more to provide places for the increasing number of children in the area.

It’s all been said before: why close a perfectly good and improving school when numbers will surely rise in the next few years with Derwenthorpe on the doorstep?

Please don’t give up: Burnholme deserves better.

Jenny Flint, Hempland Lane, York.

• YOUR coverage of the request for an extraordinary council meeting to discuss the closure of Burnholme Community College misquotes my position.

I have made it clear to everyone who has contacted me that my daughter attended Burnholme and the school has had my family support over many years.

The problem has been that not enough local people did the same. This has led to the very low attendances at the school and the need for closure.

Coun Ruth Potter, Heworth ward, Chaucer Street, York.