CINEMAS OR HOUSES?
SIR,—It was recently announced that no further licences are to be issued to private builders for the time being to start work on new houses. More recently still the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education has stated in the House that, so long as the present building restrictions persist, it will not be practicable to provide the extra classrooms necessary to reduce the size of classes in primary schools. How is it, then, that somebody has obtained a licence to build a new cinema at Rye, a fact which is substantiated by the visible evidence of builders at work on the site? Could there be anything more galling for the two hundred-odd families, whose names are on the borough surveyor's waiting list for houses, than to see the labour and materials which should be going into their new homes being expended on a luxury of this kind? Or could there be anything more disheartening for teachers who, amongst other things, are trying to persuade their pupils that the cinema is not the only form of leisure activity, than to see the same labour and materials, which they so urgently need to help them do their job better, being put at the disposal of one of their strongest rivals?—Yours faithfully,
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