WHAT'S happening with the Bo Ding Warehouse?

Last week it was nominated in the Diary as one of York's worst eyesores.

The empty and forlorn riverside building, known as the Bonding Warehouse before its N dropped off, is undeniably unloved.

This prompted the obvious question: why?

Why is one of York's larger venues, in one of York's best positions, with a balcony overlooking the Ouse and a liquor licence to boot, not buzzing with life and entertainment?

Because... it's owned by the council.

The Diary learns that the building was designed by the city surveyor, George Styan, in 1875, and stands on a site which had been used since the 12th century to control the port of York.

"From that time, the Common Crane stood there to be used for loading and unloading ships, in exchange for an appropriate tax," a well-informed source tells us.

"So the construction of the Bonding Warehouse (properly the 'Bonded Warehouse') on the site is just the most recent manifestation of that historic trading role which continued until the beginning of the last century, hence the need for a new fireproof storage building and port authority.

"The gantry on the river side of the building is symbolic of this."

Apparently the Bonding Warehouse was put up for sale after the last floods when it was decided that the resources needed to clean it up were not to be made available.

"This is not widely known but it is simply the latest bit of the city's heritage to be capitalised on, following the off-loading of the Red House and the Assembly Rooms," says my source.

"Seven hundred years of history up for the highest bidder. What price York Pride now?"

The Diary has investigated further, and was told by someone at the council that the Bonding Warehouse isn't on the market at the moment.

Messages were left with the officials in charge but they have yet to get back to us.

Fear not, Bo Ding fans, when we know more, so will you.

WAS Heslington a rural idyll or not? And is the university campus, set to grow even larger, a boon or a curse?

The debate is afoot on our letters page so the Diary looked for answers in Heslington: A Portrait Of The Village by Alfred Colley, published in 1992.

Mr Colley, who was head of Lord Deramore's Primary School in Heslington from 1961-1978, describes the farming origins of the village in the book. Rural idyll? Seems so.

On the university he is ambivalent. "The grounds of the university have enhanced the area by providing an attractive park on the doorstep of the village, and local folk are permitted to use many of the facilities there," he writes.

But later he warns of traffic growing more dense down the years, particularly with the coming of the Science Park "on the buttercup-sprinkled meadows immediately behind the village church".

Such science parks stimulate research and bring economic gains, Mr Colley wrote. But "in the battle between conservation and the needs of industry a balance is often hard to find". Spot on.

IT seems that Yorkshire's apathy about the Government's beloved regional assembly project is finally getting through to the Whitehall mandarins.

Local government minister Nick Raynsford was in Scarborough last night to chair a public meeting "aimed at stimulating debate about an elected regional assembly for Yorkshire and the Humber".

The date was picked very carefully because, the Diary learns, there were fears that if it clashed with a big Euro 2004 game, no one would turn up.

Write to: The Diary, Chris Titley, The Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN

Email diary@ycp.co.uk

Telephone (01904) 653051 ext 337

Updated: 09:26 Tuesday, June 29, 2004