OBVIOUSLY Torfaen council have absolutely no idea of democracy. The latest decision to ignore the pleas of schoolchildren, parents and teachers and to recommend closing Pontnewynydd Primary School just adds to the contempt shown to the actual wishes of the public. This is not unusual in the borough of Torfaen when you consider people’s petitions to save our school crossing patrols were also ignored and probably ended up in the bin!

Similar attempts to save other schools in the borough also were met with contempt, as did the campaign against the destruction of our “green belt” in south Sebastopol. (There are numerous other examples!) So who does the council serve? The private house-builders who will make a nice profit when the land is sold off? It seems councillors just carry out orders from the Welsh Assembly Government (ah, the wonders of super schools!) the Westminster Government (embrace the neo-liberalist project and make “austerity” cuts – sack workers and privatise everything!) and EU directives (via the European Roundtable of Industrialists and the global corporate elite!) Councillors ignore us as they please and the impression given is they don’t really give a damn! There is no democracy! There is a mockery! I am totally incensed by how we are being treated. How about you?

Terry Banfield Cardigan Crescent Cwmbran