Sir, – I write as a worried parent of a young child fast approaching school age.

I was hoping to send my daughter to my local village primary school which has a good reputation and is close to my home.

However my simple ambition has been blighted by the police proposal to build a totally inappropriate new police HQ and operational base on a greenfield site, opposite the school, in our village, flouting all planning laws and at huge expense to the taxpayer.

Besides the danger from the huge amount of traffic which 550 staff will produce, along with the resulting pollution and noise, there will also be the small problem of the ten custody cells.

If this proposal goes ahead, it will result in more than 2,400 offenders a year being imported into our village and then released without any public transport.

Usual release time is between 8 to 9 in the morning...

just when children are arriving for school. On average, according to the police statistics, this will include 76 sexual offenders and over 90 violent offenders.

There are so many other sites which are more suitable, in Hambleton and elsewhere, so why are the police being so selfish in preferring this site which will blight a community. Less than ten per cent of the children attending our local school come from the village, the rest being transported in from surrounding villages.

If this proposal goes ahead then parents, such as myself, would not want to put their children at risk and they would go elsewhere. Consequently, a 140 year-old school would close. Is this what we pay our police precept for?

REBECCA HITCHEN South Kilvington, Thirsk