BEFORE the trees were felled we were told by the City of York Council they opposed the out-of-town shopping mall which had been given planning permission by Selby District Council and is now built on top of what was the beautiful old NHS hospital grounds at Naburn.

I am disgusted at the way the City of York Council has been promoting it and now seems completely in the pockets of McArthurGlen.

Our own Lord Mayor even opened the development with all its nauseating American-style razzmatazz.

Everything is wrong with this development. It will directly compete with shops in the heart of surrounding towns and there are plenty of empty retail units in York city centre already.

It promotes the car and consumer culture causing more pollution and congestion and has cost us a beautiful green resource, changing the character of our city forever.

I am also appalled that classes of local schoolchildren were invited to attend the opening ceremony. What next, designer adverts in their exercise books?

Dawn Biram,

Clementhorpe,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.