Your caption on the photo showing a protest against the closure of the English School in Worlds End Place was labelled "students and teachers", but most of the older people in the photo were local residents like myself, who are concerned about closures of small businesses in our area, especially at World's End Place.
At the beginning of this year the council tried to hike up the rent on our local hairdresser in the Place, so she left and the Kings Salon remains empty to this day - now the English School has gone.
The English School brought lively, friendly young people to Worlds End Place from all over the world, including many young women working for local families as au pairs.
The students were deeply shocked that the school was given precisely 24 hours' notice of closure.
One of the students actually said to me: "I was surprised because this was supposed to be a charity. And I was also surprised that such a thing happened in Britain. If this happened in my country, I would not be surprised... but my country is Serbia."
As local taxpayers we are also concerned that although the Worlds End functions as a charitable trust, it receives the vast majority of its funding from our local government budgets.
The £30,000 a year which the Theatre received from the English School was its second largest source of income (after us, i.e. the local taxpayers) - and now they have turned it away, how do they intend to replace the income?
No doubt the council will be happy to oblige. Nigel Palmer, Friends of Worlds End Place
