THANKS to City of York Council's far-sighted decision to commission a "top-level study", we learn that "York Needs New Shops" (October 14).

Silly old us. We thought that there was quite enough traffic moving in and out of the city, that parking was already a problem in the centre.

Not so, say consultants Roger Tym and Partners, what we really need is several hundred more cars to be attracted to the Castle Piccadilly area.

How do Fenwicks, Debenhams and Browns feel, to be ignored in the report's demand for a large, modern department store? Are the consultants aware that the last "new-style, city centre supermarket", Presto in George Hudson Street, was hardly a success, in spite of having a car park?

It limped along for ten years or so, closed ignominiously and remained an eyesore for several more years.

What has changed in the intervening years which will make shoppers head for the Castle Piccadilly site to do their weekly supermarket dash?

What will it take to tempt them away from the free parking available at Clifton Moor, MacArthurGlen and Monks Cross ?

Did the consultants spot the 150 or so empty shop premises around the city and are they aware that many more small retailers and Post Offices are set to close?

Our local newsagent and greetings card shop posted notice that it too will close at the end of the month.

Ask visitors to York why they shop here and the answer is that it is the small and characterful shops, the intimate pubs and restaurants and the Newgate market which give York its unique and historic drawing power.

The only attractive element in the consultants' report is the incorporation of a high quality open space, the bit they have added as a sweetener to their ludicrous proposal.

Judy and Ron Burnett,

Holly Terrace,

Fulford Road,

York.

Updated: 09:38 Thursday, October 14, 2004