THE article about Darlington’s Polam School (Echo, Nov 20) puts the spotlight on one of this government’s most divisive policies – free schools.

All over the country children are being taught in schools needing major refurbishment.

But with a limited budget the government gives priority to building, or in the case of Polam, extending free schools – many of them where there is already sufficient, or surplus, places such as Darlington.

We already have surplus places in our comprehensives and when Polam, as planned, grows from 260 to 880 pupils there will be even more.

With fewer pupils our schools will be hit by reduced budgets making it even harder to improve standards.

If, as stated, the aim is to improve standards there are surely better ways to spend the money. It is not yet proven that free schools do and there have been examples where they have not.

In Durham, the government shut down the free school after Ofsted rated it as failing.

Brian Fiske, Darlington