Sir – Terry Randall has the wrong end of the stick in his latest letter (July1).

My previous comments about King Alfred’s plans for new science laboratories were not from a viewpoint of “cutting edge” research. My perspective was based on my everyday experiences of working with both employers and universities to help science and engineering students get that important first job.

This has involved liaising with companies from all over the South East and listening to them tell me the skills and experience that they require in the real world of business. I also work with employees who have completely missed out on further and higher education earlier in life, but later find that they need to undertake academic studies within their workplace in order to progress.

This has included the Armed Forces, North Sea oil rigs and the new build nuclear industry in the UK.

The common factor is that young people now need to acquire practical skills to succeed in the technological workplace. There is no better place to start this than while at school.

There may well be planning interests and issues as to why the Centre Site plans are not acceptable to some people, but I do not think they should be based upon a spurious argument that up-to-date science facilities are not an important factor in good teaching.

The children of Wantage and Grove deserve the best, wherever they are located.

Prof Glenn Patrick
Churchward Close
Grove