THE Starting Gate public house has now been run for over a year without a manager/manageress team in place.

Senior staff have worked together, despite many changes in personnel, with the younger, willing members, to ensure the restaurant and bar ran as well as possible under the circumstances.

Their reward from Whitbread for their effort is, in effect, the sack.

What an opportunity wasted by Whitbread, the pub is in an ideal location with the pulling potential from two major hotels nearby. A bit of modernisation and foresight was all that was needed, but no, just another example of big brewery greed. I hope planning permission is denied.

Paul Grant,

Ryecroft Avenue,

Woodthorpe, York.

Updated: 11:30 Monday, November 04, 2002