IN HIS book The Airport That Never Was, local author Norman Spence describes how aviation pioneer Sir Alan Cobham visited York in 1929 to reconnoitre the area for a suitable site for an aerodrome.

About the same time my mother did brave a wire and string contraption for about quarter of an hour, being a fan of Amy Johnson at the time.

The ambivalence of the city authorities towards aviation seems to have been perpetuated when we read Demolition Looms for Garage Site (The Press, June 18).

For a short period in the early 1930s, Piccadilly is where aviation literally got under York’s skin, ie within the bounds of the city walls.

There, Britain’s first production aeroplane with a retractable undercarriage was designed.

Engineering and aeronautical history was made in that shed.

The aeroplane was invented by a Yorkshireman (Sir George Cayley), so you’d have thought that York’s present crop of councillors, with the honourable exception of Councillor Taylor, would have latched on to this significant strand in local history.

The building can still be saved, secured, preserved and developed into an art deco era attraction.

Piccadilly has had such a sorry history in recent decades.

Here’s a chance to counter that trend with something truly original which would be another feather in York’s festooned cap.

So councillors, some of whom I recently helped to elect, please show some imagination and vision.

Derek Reed, Middlethorpe Drive, York

 

SO NOW the council finds that the old Reynards garage in Piccadilly is dangerous and needs to be demolished (The Press, June 18). How very convenient.

Along with the splendid art deco and history, are suggestions of a museum to remember that this building was once used as an Airspeed factory and owned by Nevil Shute and with historic connections to Amy Johnson.

Surely a building with such historic memories could be turned into a museum so that tourists could learn more about its original use. I’m sure it would attract visitors from all over the world.

Why is it that City of York Council want to knock down and change York’s heritage?

It is so sad that this has to happen yet again.

I suppose they could always build another hotel. York obviously doesn’t have enough of them, clearly.

S McClaren, Boroughbridge Road, York