A few years ago a lovely building - 129 Lawrence Street - was torn down to be replaced by very bland “modern” flats and apartments. The building was once the head office of The Veterinary Drug Company, who also owned The Vicarage next door at 127 Lawrence Street, which met a similar fate.

No we will soon see The Carlton Tavern in Acomd Road torn down and replaced by yet another bland structure, so reducing the architectural variety on one of the major roads into the city, just like Lawrence Street.

Why do we do this to our beautiful buildings? I am quite sure that the new nursing home proposed for The Carlton Tavern could easily adapt the present building, or leave the front of the building untouched, while the rear is modernised, thus keeping some of our past heritage.

Stuart Wilson, Vesper Drive, York

Carlton Tavern revisited?

I know something about the planning system after submitting applications, appeals and claims for costs over four decades.

It is unlawful for York Council to take the Carlton Tavern application back to committee after it was duly approved last month.

Years ago there was a case where a planning committee decided an application should be rejected; but by mistake the decision notice sent out stated approval. The applicant said he had planning permission. The council said he hadn’t.

It ended up in court where it was determined that the approval notice was just a piece of paper. A clerical error. The judge ruled it is what was decided by members at committee that constituted the planning decision - not what happened afterwards.

Applying this precedent to the Carlton Tavern it can be seen that planning permission has been granted. The matter cannot be revisited. If York Council wish to revoke that permission there are procedures it must go through and serious financial implications that York taxpayers should be very concerned about.

Matthew Laverack, Lord Mayors Walk, York

Return of the Winter of Discontent?

In 1979 production of Dr Who was stopped by a technicians’ strike. At the time, of course, the entire public sector was on strike, including British Gas, British Telecom and British Rail (indeed anything with British in its name) as well as unionised aspects of the NHS and anything that union flying pickets could get at.

This was precipitated by the austerity imposed by the IMF as a condition for granting the bailout loan requested by the Labour Government after a decade of economic mismanagement The resultant restrictions on trade union activities imposed by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government and the privatisation of most of the “B” industries saved the country from such damage and inconvenience for years but I understand that Mr Corbyn and friends intend to revive them.

As a matter of interest the Labour Chancellor, Denis Healey, subsequently claimed he acted on inaccurate information from the Treasury and had really not needed to go to the IMF at all.

A lesson here perhaps for those who demand that we provide details of the economic effects of Brexit when no one knows the true current economic situation of the nation?

A V Martin, Westfield Close, Wigginton,York

Cuts too far

You would think that the experience of the last seven years might have persuaded Geoff Robb (Letters, November 24) that constant public spending cuts haven’t helped to reduce the deficit, but instead have prolonged it.

There’s a simple explanation for this. Austerity has not only blighted countless lives and put public services in crisis; by trashing productivity and holding back growth it has hit government tax receipts and put back still further any reduction in public borrowing.

This time two years ago, George Osborne was confidently predicting a £10 billion budget surplus in 2019. The latest forecast is now a deficit of £35 billion.

Given the total failure of Conservative economic policy since 2010, John McDonnell’s modest proposal to borrow £500 billion at record-low interest rates to invest in much-needed public infrastructure and industry and kick-start the stalling UK economy makes perfect sense, and will lead to the deficit coming down faster than it is doing in the Tories’ dead-end street.

Mark Gladwin, Huntington Road, York