Bury Free Press readers' letters to the editor

Bury St Edmunds market, schools' reorganisation and a plea from a shopper in this week's mailbag.

USE THE TOWN’S MARKET OR YOU RISK LOSING IT

Amongst many fine facilities offered to us by a move to Bury St Edmunds was the thriving twice weekly market, offering an interesting mix of fruit and veg to street food and everything imaginable in between.

It was therefore, very sad to see – online – photographs of Bury town centre taken on Saturday depicting streets devoid of both market stalls and would be customers.

Market traders have always been a tough bunch, often putting up with the very worst weather Mother Nature can throw at them. I hope, therefore, these images prove to be a one-off, and not a sign of the demise of what has, for years, been the very heartbeat of our town.

Use it or lose it comes to mind.

Brian Davies, Bury St Edmunds

WE WANT YOUR VIEWS ON SCHOOL CHANGES

You may have seen in last week’s Bury Free Press that Unity Schools Partnership has launched a public consultation into plans to reorganise four schools in Bury St Edmunds.

I am writing to our local community to ask for their views.

Under the plans, provision at Tollgate Primary School and County Upper School would be extended and Horringer Court Middle School and Westley Middle School would close in August 2023.

We understand and acknowledge that the middle school structure and three-tier system has benefited local students for a number of years and this is not something we are proposing lightly.

Unfortunately, over the last few years, the number of families choosing middle schools has diminished, the knock-on effect being the type of education we can offer to students in the future.

We believe it is the right time to convert these group of schools into a primary and secondary model and harmonise admissions at age 11 across the town and across Suffolk.

But we also want to stress that these are very much ‘proposals’. We have launched the consultation to gauge views from families, students, affected community groups, the wider community and many more.

Public meetings, where attendance must be booked in advance, will be held on Thursday, January 27, at Westley Middle School, Monday, January 31, at Horringer Court Middle School and Wednesday, February 2, at County Upper School.

You can also find out more about our plans via a consultation website – http://consultationbse.unitysp.co.uk – where you can book your place at the public meeting and also take part in our consultation, which runs until Thursday, February 17.

We do understand that these plans will be disappointing for some and acknowledged by others. That is why we urge you to take part in the consultation and share your views.

Tim Coulson, Chief Executive, Unity Schools Partnership

SHED SOME LIGHT ON MY WALK TO STORE

We now have a much-improved Waitrose which we all love and use, but what about some lights for those of us who walk from The Apex through the dark passage in King’s Road?

It’s (currently) not very safe for children, mums with pushchairs and the oldies.

I don’t know who this passage belongs to but whoever it is, we would love to be able to see where we are going.

Monica Ames, Bury St Edmunds