I REFER to recent comments in the Echo on Friday about councillors not listening to their villages’ needs.

We are having the same problem in Puddletown, having parish meetings when Dorset County Council (DCC) staff and councillors have been invited to listen to the general public give their views, often very passionately.

However, these still seem to fall on deaf ears regarding the relocation of the first school.

A site was purchased many years ago to rebuild the first school for when it was deemed to be too small or costly to maintain.

The villagers were led to believe that a road would then take the school traffic out of the narrow roads being used at the moment and to link St Mary’s Middle and the first school together and on to the High Street.

DCC keep harping on about decreasing funding, yet they seem to have the money to buy another six acres for a new site, but can’t possibly use this to fund a new road to the previous site (highways problem) which is now overgrown and is deemed a site of special interest.

I am fed up with reading about all this waste of taxpayers’ money and not listening to people’s needs.

I thought this new government was encouraging grassroots power, but it doesn’t seem to have reached those at County Hall, who don’t live in, or seem to care about how their decision affects the lives of those living in, these rural communities.

We haven’t complained about the traffic issues until now because it is an opportune time to fix this. Don’t forget, councillors, we have elected you to express our opinions to those who make the decisions.

Bridget Legg, Coombe Road, Puddletown