JAMES Bettley's letter (August 19) about the Odeon cinema in Blossom Street was very interesting.

While I agree with some of James's points I do not feel, like him, that all the blame for the Odeon situation is down to decisions made by City of York Council.

Certainly, the Odeon has been neglected and needs urgent refurbishment. However, I am astonished that refurbishment cannot be achieved without removing the original Odeon sign.

New-style Odeon signs are mounted at canopy level, so one could be added leaving the original sign unmolested higher up on the facade. The council and Odeon should work out a solution.

Odeon inherited an envious art-deco circuit from founder Oscar Deutsch. Sadly, they see this as a burden rather than an asset. To them every Odeon building is no more than a financial deal with greedy land developers. To us campaigners they are treasured traditional picture houses.

The Odeon company has already closed many fine landmark cinemas since the chain was sold by Rank. They continue to adopt this arrogant attitude - an all-too-familiar story in this country. Odeon has treated the citizens of York in cavalier fashion by snubbing our petition and refusing to respond to our requests to meet and discuss our cinema's future.

Blossom Street has a fine, unique Odeon-style building with original signage - the only one left in Britain. If it closes it will be an irretrievable mistake by the company, and not the fault of our council.

Derek Atkins,

Public Relations Officer, Mercia Cinema Society,

Mount Vale,

York.

Updated: 10:04 Thursday, August 26, 2004