IN HIS letter of January 24, Allan Charlesworth echoed the thoughts in my letter published a few weeks ago about the spurious use of the name West Offices for the new council HQ. Coun Ian Gilles and others have also been outspoken about how the council has failed to come up with a meaningful name.

I visited the offices over the York Residents’ weekend and was disappointed to find that all we were allowed to see was the gargantuan reception area and the bike sheds.

The surrounding cubicles that will act as offices look rather like the glass cages scientists keep specimens in. The full-length glass office frontages are surely a hazard and will need stickers to prevent people from walking into them.

All the signage and videos have been made up as West Offices and I’ll bet the office stationery has already been approved and ordered making ‘West Offices’ a fait accompli. Once more, the council appears to have gone ahead without consultation.

Having now seen the construction of the building at close quarters, I have a new suggestion for the HQ building – how about Meccano Hall?

Bob Redwood, Main Street, Askham Bryan, York.

 

• WHEN visiting the new council offices last weekend, it was good to see an old York building used again and it is important to see the “City Hall” in a central location. All we need now is to build a bus station on part of the station car park and we have the important buildings all in the same area.

However, when I visited West Offices four or five years ago to see York’s original station, there was coloured glass in some of the canopy (probably not original, but part of its history) and there were railway lines (not very long ) in the U-shaped platform design.

It was a good idea to restore and move the canopy to its new place, but it is now filled with bog-standard glass and no colour. There are no railway lines any more so no indication as to what this important building used to be.

The canopy now covers the cycle racks. Nothing wrong with that, but surely there was room to put the short railway lines back with concrete platforms around the lines to show how it used to be although not in exactly the same place.

This important part of York has been lost.

Ian Tomlinson, Pulleyn Drive, York.

 

• WHY ALL the fuss about the naming of the new council offices? Surely it should be called “Council Offices, Station Rise, etc”. No fancy name needed. Just keep it simple, and everyone will know what and where it is.

Also, while we’re on the subject of these offices which, we’re told, are going to be equipped with new furnishings, what is happening to the furniture from St Leonard’s and other offices?

Is the very expensive carpet that we funded a few years ago to be reused in these new offices?

We were told at the time of the fitting of that carpet that it would last many years and that was why we had to pay out all that money.

It’s to be hoped all current stationery will be reused by blocking out the address. As we are constantly being told to recycle, so should the council.

Janet S Kitchen-Cooper, Ashley Park Road, York.