COUN BRIAN WATSON comments that the planning permission given to the White Swan Hotel should breathe new life into this neglected structure (The Press, December 7).

Sadly not – unless the owners have a buyer or are prepared to undertake this project themselves, the consent for 14 new apartments means nothing. It may well be one more approval to add to Terry’s, Nestlé and Germany Beck, where permissions exist but builders do not.

John Jones, Sand Hutton Manor, York.