to attend grammar schools seems set to grow now Govern- ment is encouraging enlarge- ment of the better, more popular schools. Hopefully this will be the first step in re-establishing these excellent schools in towns sadly deprived of them by polit- ical machinations over the last 40 years or so. The future of our country de-


pends so much on the quality of education and producing lead- ers in our communities and businesses. So many say much of our cur-


rent education is failing badly – with businesses in despair as they try to rectify shortcomings in young people’s core educa- tion subjects. Parents know grammar


schoolsmaintain their deserved reputation for high standards and work and press hard for ad- missions. It is highly competi- tive – but the best pupils make it. Most start at 11 – but Ialso like to see late and keen devel- opers get their chance at 13. These are the able brains that


Good news for our grammar schools 


THEnumber of children able MailMarks


DENNIS FOWLE - President Kent Campaigning Journalist of the Year 2001 email: dfowle2011@aol.com


can be challenged and devel- oped at the pace that suits them, and many will rise to provide our country with vital leader- ship in the future. In Maidstone we have won-


derful examples of the success of grammar schools, with four of the very best. Inmymany years in local journalism Ialways knew Iwas in a special and vital place when visiting some of these schools. The opponents are highly crit-


ical of a selection system which they see classifying children as successes or failures at 11. There has to be selection – life is all about competition. But soci- ety’s task is to lift all schools so students can enter the increas- ingly challenging jobs market


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


Wrong placefor a tip Dear Sir - As someone who lives in a country lane in East Far- leigh, Isuffer both from the traf- fic jams around Tovil Recycling Centre, and from flytipping from people unwilling to wait. The waste site has been there


for about 30 years. It has never increased in size,


but in that time the town’s popu- lation has gone up by about 50%. It used to be surrounded by in- dustry, but is now hemmed in by houses and Tescos. There's no room to expand,


and to deal with any more cate- gories of recycling, as must be very likely, is going to prove al- most impossible. Hardly ideal. Surely a move to Allington


near the incinerator must be pos- sible? Easy entry from the motor- way, and away from housing. Any waste to be burned is right where you want it. Surely this one's a no-brainer! Tim Knowles, Yew Tree, Kettle Lane, East Farleigh


Not all Labour’s fault Dear Sir - Ihad started to hope and believe that as a newspaper you were even-handed in your reporting of the political scene but two recent articles give me cause for concern. The first was in an article in


Mail Marks (South, June) in which you followed a fair minded paragraph that accu- rately reflected the position of Labour locally with an outra- geous one that propagated the Tory myth that the economic mess is confined to the UK and


28 South


with skills which meet their and employers’ needs. That’s where there are so many problems at present – and the Government nowseems set to face them. The days of dumbing down our edu- cation must be over.





A load of old rubbish Iamreally excited !! We are


starting another recycling box in and around our home. It’s the thirteenth. This is what we have:


1. Wheelie bin for non recy- clables.


2. Wheelie bin for recyclables.


3. Wheelie bin for green garden waste.


4. Container indoors for recy- clables.


5. Bin indoors for non-recy- clables.


6. Box for newspapers and card. 7. Box for bottles/glass.


8. Container inside for cooked, uncooked food waste.


9. Container outside for cooked, uncooked food waste.


10. Container inside for garden compost


11. Three big containers outside for garden compost. 12. Box for old clothes.


13. The thirteenth box will be for waxed cartons we can now take to Tesco, Tovil. Ontop of this,weoccasionally


have old spectacles, shoes, boots, batteries, electrical items, asbestos, rubble and metal we take to specialist areas. Inow feel reasonably well


trained – and probably ready to take a degree course in recy- cling. Sadly, Istill make too many wrong decisions.


Just as wellwehave plenty of


space around our home. How dopeoplemanagewhenspace is tight?


You can write to us at: Downs Mail, 2 Forge House, Bearsted Green Business Park, Bearsted, Maidstone, ME14 4DT or e-mail: info@downsmail.co.uk


is all down to Gordon Brown. It is clear to the rest of the


world that this was a global prob- lem caused by bankers’ greed, and would have been much worse were it not for the leader- ship shown by Gordon Brown on the world stage. The second is your very muted response to the selling-off of our local heritage. Irefer to the sale of the six bedroomed Raigersfeld House and the smaller Raigers- feld Lodge along with 2 acres of Mote Park. This is property and land owned by the people of Maidstone. It was sold at auction for £450,000, a very reasonable price to pay for two houses and two acres of park land with access through the park direct into the centre of town. There was no mention of this


in the Tory propaganda before the election, no consultation with the people and as your arti- cle says the sale boards went up before the end of the deadline for scrutiny of this decision. This is definitely not the time


to say “local Tories seem ambi- tious and confident and wemust all wish them well”. Jim Grogan, The Landway, Bearsted


Sorry is not enough Dear Sir - Iread with interest your front page story ‘RoyalMail sorry for postal woe’ (South, June), but realistically, sorry isn't good enough in many cases. Like many others, Ihave been affected by this apparent restructure. However, as well as only re- ceiving my mail intermittently


over the six weeks or so, Inow have a much greater problem. I currently have a total of four packages or parcels, which Iam expecting to be delivered from different sources, which have not arrived. They are all products that Ihave paid good money for.. Ihave evidence from the sup-


pliers that payment has been re- ceived and that Royal Mail has sent the products first class and yet, in some cases, more than three weeks later, the parcels have still not arrived. Iattended the local sorting of-


fice this morning and they con- firmed there were no parcels awaiting collection and Iwas therefore given a customer serv- ices telephone number to call. The manager on the end of the


phone went through the parcels awaiting delivery in our area and was only able to confirm there were no parcels awaiting deliv- ery.


Iunderstand the need for re- structure within companies, but when things are going this wrong, sending out a Royal Mail spokesperson to "apologise for any inconvenience" just isn't good enough!


Sarah Gough, Marion Crescent, Shepway


Beware of charges Dear Sir - Iwould just like to make your readers aware of the time limits in various car parks. Ihave recently received a Park-


ing Charge Notice (£60 fine) for parking in the Asda Living car park inMaidstone for two hours and 10 minutes. Iwas in Asda the whole time


having a coffee and then shopped, unaware of the time re- striction (two hours). Although there are signs, these are easily missed. Two hours is just not long enough for a coffee and a shop.


When Iinformed Asda they


did not care even though Ihave still got the receipt for the pur- chases Imade that day. You are photographed on the way in and photographed on the way out. Ibelieve a similar scheme is at Quarry Wood in Aylesford and many other places. Ithink it is appalling the way innocent shoppers are targeted. Karen Carpenter, by email


High-speed all hype Dear Sir - Is it only me, or can others remember the fuss about a possible station for Maidstone on the high-speed rail line which passes our town? The borough council, our MP


and many others campaigned against having a station for Maid- stone, yet here we are with so called high-speed services oper- ating from the town. The service we have is high-


speed trains on slow speed rail for almost all of the journey, yet we could have had the high- speed station at Maidstone built on the high-speed line with all the benefits, including Eurostar. Now we are, as we were in the


19th century, a branch line. Do we never learn from history? How about an initiative to link


into the high-speed link near to Maidstone, or is that a lost chance?


Roger Hurst, Vinters Park You can e-mail the Downs Mail — info@downsmail.co.uk


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