THIS letter will be the 301st time The Press will have covered the Lendal Bridge trial since its announcement in April.

Keith Thornton has asked me to “confirm or deny through the letters page whether a ‘deal’ was struck with the new owners before the purchase of the old council offices” (Letters, December 21).

I can put Keith’s mind at rest. Neither I nor any of my Labour colleagues were involved in the July, 2007 sale when the previous Liberal Democrat Council sold St Leonard’s council offices for use as a hotel. This was almost four years before Labour was elected to lead the council.

The Press of July 30, 2007, covered the sale at the time by saying: “York’s tourism chief has called for landmark buildings in St Leonard’s Place to be transformed into the city’s first five-star hotel”.

This information was previously stated in the letters page by the council’s assistant director of planning and sustainable development (Rumour... and denial, December 4, 2013).

Coun James Alexander, Labour Leader of City of York Council, Holgate Road, Holgate, York.