I TEND to agree with Grant Burton's column, 'Do we need more shops?' (Evening Press, May 18). I recently looked at the work in progress to rebuild the Stonegate shopping arcade, and I think it would be best left flattened. Here is a lovely broad space which would benefit from a bit of landscaping, with seats and greenery, surrounded by some of York's oldest buildings and with a beautiful backdrop of York Minster.

Allan Denney,

Catesby House,

Holgate Road, York.

Updated: 11:35 Monday, June 03, 2002