Sir, The seasonal greetings we received from my wife's cousin in Canada prompted me to ask why there has not been more people protesting about the silly school project. I can only assume that the risk of being called racist, or anti Welsh, has prevented people from putting pen to paper. I have lived and worked in Tenby and its surroundings for 50 years and have never been aware of a supposed overwhelming desire by its residents for a Welsh medium school. In the 35 years spent in the Tenby Male Choir, I have had many Welsh speaking friends. Most of them had careers in education or local government, some spent time in England before coming home to roost, and, although they give us correct pronunciations and interpretations, I have never heard any of them converse with each other in Welsh, and I know that none of their children or grandchildren speak the language. To knock down a perfectly good and well-loved school to create a playing area, and then build what looks like a prefab on the present playing field at a cost of eight-million pounds would seem less than sensible in the best times, let alone in times of financial restraint. This, from a council that claims a shortfall of 47-million pounds. Anyone who has ploughed through the 40-page document produced by the Welsh Assembly on plans for education, with its graphs, percentage circles and other gobbledegook, will realise that it is already years out of date and trying to implement its contents can only be detrimental to the standard of education, already the lowest in Europe. If the establishment are really serious about improving things, they should leave Welsh to be preserved on the eisteddfod platform and by Welsh choirs. Use the money to build a grammar school, and give the brightest children from any background the opportunity of the social mobility that is needed in the modern world. Like the aforementioned cousin, Colin James, from a Tenby council house to head of the university in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Eddie Stapleton, Tenby.