WHATEVER your politics, you can’t fail to agree with Coun Ian Gillies that we should think carefully about the name of the building that houses our new council headquarters.

Surely a full address of York City Council Headquarters, West Offices, Station Rise, York, tends to downgrades its purpose.

Retaining the title West Offices for the building begs the question west offices of what? I can’t imagine any business retaining such as meaningless title – it sounds like an outpost, rather than the centre of operations. The location may be where the west offices of British Rail in York were once situated, but the site was originally (1839 to be precise) where York’s railway terminus was developed and expanded in the heady days of railway mania when the Railway King, George Hudson, was in the driving seat.

Surely it would make better sense to capitalise on the railway heritage. So let’s get creative and rename it something like Old Railway Buildings or Old Station Complex, or even [Queen] Victoria House (The Queen did once make a somewhat inglorious stopover at the former Station Hotel).

Maybe a better idea would be to hold a naming competition organised through The Press to celebrate the arrival of the latest iconic building?

Allan Charlesworth, Old Earswick, York