DURHAM County Council plans to build more than 31,400 new homes by 2030, some with as many as six bedrooms.

If each new home has only one child, then 31,400 additional children in County Durham will need an education.

But, in towns such as Spennymoor, schools face demolition to make way for housing developments, but no new schools are being built to provide for this massive increase.

In 2010, the coalition Government introduced legislation which effectively made it impossible to build new schools.

This legislation is why Durham County Council had to fight the Government to obtain special permission to build Whitworth Park School, in Spennymoor.

So why is Durham County Council granting permission for developments, knowing no new schools can be built to provide places of education for the many thousands of additional children who’ll be moving into the area?

CT Riley, Spennymoor