SIR - The word dissident, for most people, is associated with Aleksandr Soljenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov. They faced the Gulag and worse to defend freedom of speech for themselves and the majority of Soviet citizens, who lived under an oppressive and completely unaccountable regime.

But perhaps John Hinton was thinking of Galileo, persecuted by the Catholic Church for daring to suggest that the Earth revolves around the Sun?

Whatever the case, another infantile attempt to smear anyone who dares to bring facts into the Chrissies debate has backfired. Talking of facts John, a flood plain is defined as "an area adjacent to a river that is inundated at least once per century" - Tesco and the county council will have to be far more convincing than you to have any chance of moving the school.

PAUL SAUNDERS,

rhus, Denmark.