WHILE Tony Blair's government was trying to frighten us all with insubstantial stories of imminent terrorist attacks, it is not surprising that his local Labour lackeys should stoop to similarly crude scaremongering in their Christmas leaflet.

The grinning face of Dave Merrett prepared us to be suitably depressed by the photomontage showing the Minster dwarfed by large buildings.

Given Labour's recent poor record of development control (eg the Mecca casino, St Paul's Mews and the Rawcliffe radio mast) one might be excused for thinking that this picture represented Dave Merrett's mythical vision for the future of York.

Readers were no doubt puzzled to find that it purported to show the policies of the Liberal Democrats.

As a former candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the Bishophill Ward, I can assure you that building skyscrapers in the middle of York is not and never will be part of our policy.

Assuming that the Labour Party has not abandoned all semblance of intelligent argument, what precisely are they trying to say?

Is it that having presided over the biggest developer bonanza that York has ever seen, they are now trying to pass the buck?

Perhaps, as a starter, Dave Merrett could deny the rumour that, since they have already built on virtually every available piece of land, the council is now planning to sell off former stray land to developers, ie the Moss Street depot?

Having spent three years planning a garden for this site, only to discover that it was a hollow consultation exercise leading nowhere, members of the community deserve intelligent answers rather than crude scaremongering.

M R Bartlett,

York Liberal Democrats,

Scarcroft Road, York.

Updated: 12:22 Friday, January 10, 2003