WHEN City of York Council granted a licence for using the Rawcliffe Country Park (land that it owns) to stage the November fireworks event run by Kaboom, they had not, it appears, considered the long-term impact on their land.

The subsequent damage is still making access and use of the site very difficult as the photos show. It has yet to reinstate the land more than three months later so that local users can gain easy access.

Significant damage to this site (which contains a pond in the middle and has a high water table) after a single event lasting a few hours suggests, that, at the simplest level, City of York Council needs to consider carefully why it is now working with the promoters of the Galtres festival, which could attract 7,000 people for three days (traditionally held in a rural area in open fields near Crayke) to allow a three-day music, beer and onsite camping festival on this wet site in a residential urban location next to 3,500 households in Rawcliffe and within hearing distance of Upper and Lower Poppleton?

Derek Paterson, Ings View, Shipton Road, York.