THE saddest aspect of Ruth Kelly's decision to grant outline planning permission for the University of York to build an unnecessarily large campus on farmland in the green belt is that the planning process has failed yet again to provide an optimal result for the city.

The public inquiry system establishes a winner-takes-all confrontation, instead of providing a mechanism where a consensus is sought.

I opposed the Heslington East development on environmental grounds, and it is still not too late to modify the plans to make the development less damaging (www.noheslingtoneast.co.uk).

I remain convinced that, given a little imagination, the university and the city could both thrive without taking so much farmland out of production.

Dr Richard D Firn, Stockton Lane, York.


* AS EXPECTED, the loud voices of the university, housebuilders and money have won the day, and as usual the voices of the residents of the area have been talking to deaf ears.

With the sweep of a pen in London, approximately 1,400 houses and the expansion of the university will go ahead.

Looking from Badger Hill, the wonderful view of countryside will disappear under the usual nondescript buildings of the university.

The traffic around Fulford, Heslington and surrounding places will become horrendous, and the overflow of approximately 1,000 students, which the university will have no accommodation for, will take up more family homes as student bedsits (four students to a house, approximately 250 houses).

Maybe the university will acquire the right amount of houses in the new developments to accommodate them. And pigs might fly.

M Robinson, Broadway, York.


* I was sorry to read that the University of York has been given permission by the Government to expand by a third.

My heart goes out to those living in Heslington, as I know what it is like to live in an area surrounded and blighted by students.

Bath is a little way ahead of York, in that our second university was created a few years ago.

Since then residents have had their lives made an absolute misery, with no support or help from either establishment or the local council.

Things have got so bad here that those who can afford to are moving out. There is no housing for local people, and first-time buyers have absolutely no chance whatsoever.

I sincerely hope that York does not go downhill in the way that Bath has. I love visiting York on a regular basis and would not want it to change.

A Phillips, Bath.