MR Wilson wrote in to criticise the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's structurally unsound, abandoned, five-year-old "pioneering" apartment block in Leeds - the "collapsing" CASPAR development (Letters, January 12).

The foundation seems incapable of answering its critics, not just with regard to the Leeds fiasco but also over its floundering "Disasterthorpe" scheme.

It refuses to even acknowledge that there is a problem with its core leadership.

The foundation proudly claims that it builds "lifetime homes". Given the five-year life-span of the Leeds flats I can only assume that this comment can only be used in the context of creatures with a short life, such as gerbils.

If the foundation does not want to talk about "Disasterthorpe" or collapsing flats then can it enlighten me as to why it seems to waste so much of its money on pointless research?

The foundation has released a report announcing that too many flats have been built and not enough family homes, a report no doubt commissioned to bolster its "Disasterthorpe" scheme.

How many thousands of pounds did the foundation have to pay an academic to come to this conclusion? It could have simply spent £5 sending someone with a brain the size of a pea on a taxi ride from one side of York to the other to come to the same conclusion.

M Warters,

Yew Tree Mews,

Osbaldwick Village, York.

Updated: 09:08 Thursday, January 26, 2006