I write with regard to the article "Tories bouncing back" (The Argus, February 6).

How amusing that the Labour Party has now realised it is set to lose out at the local elections.

Having met with Councillor Pat Hawkes, written to numerous Green, Tory and Labour councillors about the school admissions review (SAR) and attended the children, families and schools committee meeting last week, I am surprised the party has managed to last this long - and I had been a lifelong Labour supporter.

Pat Hawkes and Jack Hazelgrove sit on the committee and are supposed to represent my neighbourhood.

Instead, we have been abandoned to their personal political agendas.

While the Greens were unmovable in their fight for access to Dorothy Stringer and Varndean for Hanover families, the majority of the Labour councillors representing Coldean, Bevendean and Moulsecoomb chose to ignore the hundreds of pleas from their constituents for a fair deal for their children.

They not only voted for the SAR, relegating our children and Falmer High School to failure because of the lack of a diverse intake, but also used the most diabolical underhand tactics in order to force the proposals through.

Sacking, at the eleventh hour, one of the two Labour committee members who had taken the time to listen and who was voting against the SAR was the final straw for me. Or perhaps it was watching Coun Hawkes use her chair's vote over and over again to decide the outcome for our city when every vote was hung.

Anne Meadows was the one Labour councillor left who had some gumption and who spoke with passion and eloquence about the injustice which was about to be done but she had no hope against the Greens and the Labour whip.

I never thought I'd find myself supporting a Tory, even less cheering and clapping a group of them, but the Conservative members of the committee were taking a stand for the benefit of all the children and schools in Brighton and Hove.

Having listened to the schools and parents who had taken part in the consultation, they attempted to push through amendments which would have made the proposals fairer.

Do the Labour councillors really think the 3,500 voters who signed the petition against the SAR were going to forget by May?

Dr Sam Type
Brighton