SIR – We read that the city leaders have spoken in support of the proposed bell tower at Christopher Whitehead School.

Hmm, the City leaders show scant concern for the ordinary folk who make Worcester the splendid city that it is.

It is fine for these leaders to make airy-fairy statements about a bell tower that is not about to be constructed in their own immediate neighbourhood. Yes, the tower is being paid for by a wealthy benefactor, but consider the cost, not just to the sanity of nearby residents, but the ongoing costs of daily operation, maintenance and repair.

If the wealthy benefactor is not picking up this tab the bell tower will be leaching valuable funds from an already meagre education budget. This would seem to be detrimental to the education of the majority of children in favour of those few who wish to become bell-ringers.

But no, it is to be democratic – the headmaster writes, “The driver for the bell tower is the educational benefits that bell-ringing will bring to the school curriculum in the teaching of art, science and mathematics.

“It will also help improve children’s physical agility, co-ordination..., reaction time and balance, plus improve muscle endurance and cardiovascular fitness”.

Really! The school pupil numbers are set to rise to 1,500. To get the physical fitness benefits each pupil will need a regular session pulling the bell ropes, meanwhile mathematicians will be squeezing their way in to the tower to study the formulae, alongside physicists attempting to find space to study the resonances of bells and chemists elbowing their way in to learn about the alloys used in bell founding, and, of course, musicians cramming themselves in to practise the ancient art of bell ringing. It will be mayhem.

More bell towers needed please, wealthy benefactor.