DYSLEXIA centre is set to close, (EA, May 29). I attended the meeting at Wroughton Junior School to try to save the specialist unit there.

It was clear the bureaucrats did not intend to listen to the views of parents. It emerged that some parents had never been informed the unit existed and would have asked for their children to be placed there.

Up until the end of 1999, whilst Elspeth Wollen was the LEA Advisory Teacher, it was always full and received excellent Ofsted reports. After that, there appears to have been a policy not to inform parents about the unit, or place children there. Now the LEA says it is no longer needed.

It remains to be seen whether the LEA can fulfil the assurances given at the meeting. Will it really make available whatever a child needs in every mainstream school, even for those with severe difficulties?

How many teachers have the skills of the teacher in the Specialist Dyslexia Unit; how many will really be able to deliver the intensive teaching that severely dyslexic children need on a daily basis?

It may be that the only recourse for parents of severely dyslexic children is to make representations for placements at independent specialist schools, two of which are within daily travelling distance of Swindon.

Why have our MPs remained so silent? And why are the views of parents ignored?

(Mrs) D G HOLLAND

Chair Swindon Dyslexia Association

Wroughton