• CLLR Oliver Cooper was correct in his view (School protesters ‘feel shut out’, December 13), that the Labour council has no interest in free schools and are therefore in no mind to assist abacus with their new home in the old Hampstead police station.

In fact, the Labour Camden Council had no interest in the education of the primary school age children of Belsize Park eight years ago when residents asked them to make provision for our children because they were out of the catchment area of all schools surrounding our area. Hence the founders of abacus went down the free school route.

If abacus, please note abacus is spelt with a small a, were not to house the police station, any developer taking it on would have to tear it apart for any usage. I know because I have been around the site. The company that made an offer to buy this building three years ago walked away from it, knowing that they couldn’t make it financially viable with so many restrictions on the building.

Surely, as residents, we don’t want to see this building left empty for much longer. Police stations and fire stations, which Boris Johnson closed, as well as banks, have been the hardest buildings up and down the country to sell on because of the huge costs and restrictions on them.

As a Belsize resident I and my community embrace the arrival of this outstanding school and hope that the residents of Downshire Hill do too.

LINDA GROVE
A founder of abacus, NW3