WHEN I view the beautiful structures that have been demolished and lost as featured in the photographs of Stephen Lewis’ excellent Yesterday Once More column, I feel I could weep for my life long home city of York.

Since 1800 when the then York Corporation thought it would be a great idea to demolish the entire city walls, an idea that was thankfully thwarted, York has been victim to a succession of clipboard modernisers who don’t seem to comprehend that it is the historic beauty of this ancient city that makes it distinctive and attractive to visitors.

With the demise of many industries and workplaces this attractivity is the basis of and a lifeline for the York economy.

I have come to expect a blinkered approach from successive councils, the last being the soul destroying modernisation of Kings Square and the market.

This was a legacy of the Alexander not so great years, but when a body such as English Heritage want to join in to build what looks like a cross between a nuclear bunker and a urinal at the base of Clifford’s Tower, what hope have we of safeguarding the heritage that each generation has a duty to cherish?

Fiona Evans, Whenby Grove, Huntington, York