YORK MP Hugh Bayley , responding to the thankfully-rejected 'shoppergate' scheme, stated that "we must guard against over-development which can ruin the city" (September 10).

I suggest to him that this point has almost been reached thanks to the previous Labour-run council putting a 'for sale' sign over the whole city and its suburbs.

Abandoning vast areas of the city to the developers of luxury flats and destroying the green belt certainly benefits large building firms, super rich carpetbaggers such as the man buying up whole apartment complexes and possibly council officers obsessed with development to further their local government empires, careers and index-linked pensions.

What benefits are there for ordinary York residents who see this over-development bringing increased traffic and a general descent into a vast, crime-ridden urban metropolis?

The most perceptive recent comment was made by Coun Greenwood (September 12) who, in relation to a rejected planning application on Malton Road, stated that we cannot keep concreting over the green fields. How very true and encouraging to hear.

I hope this view is more widely shared on the council now and will be used in relation to the huge, proposed greenfield developments at Fulford and Osbaldwick, which are throwbacks to the previous council's slash, burn and build plans for the suburbs.

M Warters,

Yew Tree Mews,

Osbaldwick Village, York.

Updated: 10:41 Monday, September 22, 2003