Whatever happened to common courtesy and good manners?

At the end of June we received a letter from the infant school next door to our home inviting us to a presentation by the architects designing a new ‘Little Hall’ to provide accommodation for the children to have the hot dinners now proposed for each child of statutory school age.

When we arrived at the meeting the architects gave a short presentation, but had no formal plans or dimensions, simply coloured pictures of their suggested designs and a rough proposed floor plan.

We then discovered that this new hall will be constructed at the side of the current playground area and along the boundary of our property. Needless to say we were somewhat concerned that this building would have a pitched roof and would be situated within a metre of our fence. The architects could not give us any answers as to the height of the roof or the exact length of the hall. We were also informed that the tree in the playground would be taken down (the roots of which travel under our garden) and the tree in our garden would need to be pruned to make way for this construction.

There have been no plans made as yet for the routing of drains, electric cables, water facilities or telephone cable, etc which would also run across the playground area and will be put in place during term time.

However the main concern for us is the issue of light in our garden which contains a greenhouse and a sun room both of which will now be in the shade of the pitched roof.

Unfortunately, after a short presentation the meeting was then taken over by a long discussion about how attractive the building will be and the menus and availability of the food for the children. As much as we understand the parents are concerned about these issues, this was not an item on the agenda of the meeting according to the letter we had received. It was soon obvious that none of the parents present were in the least bit interested in our serious concerns about this project but only in the bright pictures and colours in the hall.

But back to the main reason for this letter – would it not have been a courtesy to us and other neighbours for the school administrators to have contacted us prior to this meeting to give us a chance to talk about the proposals with them and the architects in a private and calm environment?

We left the meeting knowing that we were considered troublemakers simply because we were concerned about our property and the lack of consideration that we had received from the school.

D & B Fullylove, Moat Lane, Prestwood