Site is too valuable to be built upon

I BELIEVE it is rare to find a Site of Importance to Nature Conservation in a built-up, urban area of York. This is what we have in Holgate, a very special place at Severus Hill where the old water tower sits at the top.

Unfortunately the water company has chosen to sell this little oasis to a property developer who now wishes to destroy it in order to build a relatively small number of houses.

While York undoubtedly needs affordable homes, there are many places nearby being developed in the near future including Lowfield Green, where the mature trees will easily be incorporated. This is not the case at Severus.

Severus Hill has a range of mature trees and grassland providing a habitat for wildlife, and equally important the area gives local people a vital boost physically and emotionally. Trees absorb pollution, and noise, and return life-giving oxygen. This unique area near Bouthwaite Drive is home for 25 bird species, including tawny owls, song thrushes, cuckoos, house sparrows and starlings, birds already under threat and in decline.

Hedgehogs, voles and shrews are living there. Bats are also seen in the area which means it is very likely they have roosts in the trees at Severus Hill. With 13 years since the last bat survey in this area a new one is urgently needed.

I believe the granting of planning permission to build on this important piece of land would be a form of vandalism, and a very poor message to future generations. Now is the time to take action and let the City of York Council know your views. The deadline is Tuesday, October 3. The email address to which to send your comments is planning.comments@york.gov.uk, reference is 17/02006/OUTM.

Sue Cooke, Windmill Rise, York

We need bridge repaired urgently

REGARDING The Press comment (September 12), I am so annoyed that City of York Council has not repaired Blue Bridge over the River Foss.

This is a very much needed cycle way and short cut into the city centre, used by a lot of parents, schoolchildren on the way to Fishergate Primary School, Mecca Bingo, out of the way of busy Fishergate traffic.

It is not expensive to repair the rotten timbers and loose beams, as reported by the council in July 2016.

They can talk about building a new car park underground near Clifford’s Tower. Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

Please repair the Blue Bridge. We need this doing urgently.

Barbara Pettitt, Navigation Road, York

Glad selectors did not take heed

THANKFULLY the England Test selectors did not heed the words of Peter Rickaby from August 30 last year (“Time for England to ring the changes”, Letters) when he wrote off James Anderson.

Who would have been England’s man of the series instead? And how long before another England bowler joins the ranks of 500 Test match wicket-takers?

Peter Elliott, Wetherby Road, York

All those in NHS must stand united

IT IS not just York Hospital with financial problems (The Press, September 13), it is all over the UK.

All those in the NHS must stand united and we hope we will all get through this.

Hopefully careful planning and good management will win the day. When I hear of targets I always think of our hospitals running like a factory and assembly lines.

Only working together will get us though these most difficult times. Unity is the only answer to survival of the NHS.

Keith Chapman, Custance Walk, York

Human Rights laws are not part of EU

FROM time to time letters to you imply that human rights legislation is enabled by the EU but it is not.

Human rights legislation is the result of the work of The European Court of Human Rights which is a completely independent body. Sovereign nations (such as the UK) contract into it or not as they wish. Of course most civilised countries do so and the last time I Googled it Russia was contracted in (although with caveats).

I wonder why Brexiteers find it necessary to bolster their arguments with spurious implications instead of relying on logic? Perhaps they are well aware that their case is faulty.

K Powdrell, Holgate Road, York

Reality is pub site offers quick profit 

JUST because something is old, does not necessarily mean that it should be saved. This is particularly true with regards to buildings - and nowhere more than in the case of The Carlton Tavern.

Any campaign which exalts its architectural and/or historical significance is, I fear, bound to fail. I cannot detect any valid reasons to oppose its demolition on either grounds.

This does not mean that there are no grounds, however.

Not everyone goes to the pub to watch football. The venues that mean a family with small children can go for food and drink, which also provide a traffic-free safe environment and in the open air, are few and becoming less by the year.

The number of like premises that cater for those with a physical disability, lacking in transport, are in similar decline.

The reality is that the Carlton, like the Lord Nelson and many others, sit on land, open to development, which offers the owners an opportunity for a quick profit. This is in contrast to the necessary investment in money, effort and vision required to make the property economically attractive. Any possible social benefits do not even appear on the horizon in their business plans.

Finally, I am sure that I am not alone in questioning the business plan which proposes developing a care facility next to one which has been empty for how long? And at the same time that others in York are due to close, because they are also not viable business concerns.

A more suspicious person might point out that the ones that are being closed are owned by the council and the new development will be privately run.

Malcolm J Glover, Lindsey Ave, York