AS Helmsley residents, we read your article 'Plastic not so fantastic' (May 11) with great interest and mounting incredulity.

We are at a loss to discover what has, apparently, so appalled those responsible for this report.

Pottergate and most of Bondgate have no shops; all that appears to have happened is some of the residents have had the temerity to fit uPVC windows - but all are of sympathetically designed in the matching colour of white.

They look smarter than the rotting and flaking "traditional" wooden-framed windows in some of the other houses.

As for the shops, many have retained traditional wooden shop fronts and awnings and there are some recently-established premises where particular effort has been put into having attractive, smart wooden signs and fronts with a decidedly traditional look. There are also plenty of hanging signs. We certainly could not find anywhere we would regard as being inappropriately designed or made of poor materials.

The twee at heart may take offence at the plastic sign for the fish and chip shop, but it has been there donkey's years and is all part of the true character of Helmsley - not a museum piece to be preserved in aspic as a memorial to some mythical bygone age, but a living and working town.

If the local authorities want to help the environment they would do better to address the problem of the dogs' lavatory which seems to be developing on the verge and pavement outside our primary school and is not helped by the fact that the council-owned grass verge has not been mown for weeks.

Stephen and Catherine Thorn,

Bells Court, Helmsley.

Updated: 10:23 Thursday, May 12, 2005