AS a governor at Joseph Eastham High School, I respond to your feature (August 22) concerning the leaked letter from Little Hulton Community School governors.

According to the options document Salford Secondary Schools Review, there are 2,614 surplus places in the secondary sector in Salford.

Each surplus place removed would save £281 and would free more than half-a-million pounds to reinvest in schools in Salford every year.

Therefore I make the following observations.

To deliver the National Curriculum, a school should have 750 pupils to create the necessary funding. Little Hulton Community School has 490 pupils, 35 per cent, surplus places.

At the present time Joseph Eastmen High School has 842 pupils and enrolling pupils from LHCS feeder schools.

The number of under-16 pupils increased by 600, eight per cent, in the area of JEHS and only 25, one per cent, in the LHCS area.

There is a total increase of 257 dwellings in the JEHS area, compared with 134 in the LHCS area.

Therefore, if the Salford Council did accept the proposal of the LHCS governors to create two small secondary schools, I think the Department of Education would not allow this option as it would not solve the problem of surplus places.

Parent perception is an important factor.

Their perceptions are, and the admission numbers prove it, that Joseph Eastham is the more popular school, and, with the fall in population, even if the review did not take place, LHCS would have to close as a secondary school.

Part of LHCS is being used for adult vocational education and training in computer skills and sporting activities, and Salford College is using part of the school to teach vocational education and training.

Vocational GCSEs will be available in secondary education in 2002, which will promote better attendance in schools and provide young people with opportunities to attain NVQ.

Therefore, there is a strong case to keep open the building when the 490 pupils are merged into Joseph Eastham High School and use the extra space to teach more vocational training for pre and post 16 students.

Recent research has highlighted that in the Little Hulton and Walkden area, there are large numbers of young people aged 14 to 16 who attend school irregularly and are at risk of underacheveiving.

In addition, there are many 16 to 17-year-olds who do not participate in employment, training or further education.

Therefore, the potential is there to use Little Hulton Community School as a Community Learning Centre specialising in Vocational Preparation.

Frank Hankinson

Worsley Avenue

Little Hulton