I have followed the news of the seemingly inevitable demise of East Brighton College of Media Arts (Comart) with great sadness.

I know the head, staff and education authority made great efforts to help the school succeed.

The losers in this are the children and parents from Whitehawk.

My challenge is to the entrepreneurs in the city and Brighton and Hove City Council. Who is prepared to open a private school on the site, charging fees of no more than £3,500 per year?

Many parents would like to see their children educated privately but cannot afford the fees charged by other local private schools.

The council could facilitate this by allowing a private company to run a school on the site and the institution running the school could reciprocate by taking children from Whitehawk for free.

Parental choice is the magic bullet for improving education standards in deprived areas where the poor are abandoned in schools by the middle classes who have the purchasing power to ensure their children are not educated there.

Our city has a real opportunity to lead the way in partnership between business and the public sector.

Come on council, come on entrepreneurs, have a go - we could create a truly inclusive, voluntary school attracting children from all over the city.

-G Cox, Hove