Recently, Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, met the Health Minister Steve Barclay in Westminster to argue the case that the public land at Bootham Park Hospital should not be sold to the highest bidder by NHS Property Services Limited. Indeed, the fate of this historic and iconic mental health institution has raised passions all over York. Not least because the building and grounds were specifically gifted to the city with the proviso that they should serve the public good.

But what is the public good? The government clearly believe that selling off whatever public assets they can to wealthy trust funds and property developers will help fill the huge gaps in NHS budgets caused by a decade of severe underfunding and wasteful privatisation.

Others, including myself, would argue each generation is merely a custodian of publicly-owned assets. In short, that it is our responsibility to use them effectively for the good of the whole community rather than for a short-term financial fix.

So here are a few suggestions concerning the Bootham Park Hospital site. If any local councillors or decision-makers are reading this, I would be delighted to hear what you think.

Firstly, the extensive grounds at the front of the Hospital. Instead of selling off this land, why not organise a competition for designs to create a truly beautiful public park? It could have a pond or other water features, landscaping, maybe a café or performance space, and lots of facilities for children.

We can’t have enough green spaces in the modern urban mix. Such a park would meet the original intentions behind the gift of the land to the city and add to the quality of our lives: a gift to the people of York that keeps on giving.

My next suggestion concerns the historic building itself. Rachael Maskell has suggested that the building be used to provide accommodation for health professionals at affordable rents. Given the crisis the NHS is facing in recruiting and retaining doctors, nurses and all kinds of medical specialists, this seems a pragmatic and wholly sensible idea. Let’s face it, the alternative of developing yet more luxury flats way beyond the reach of ordinary York people will have no long-term benefits for our city. Only the usual suspects will profit: and personally I think they are already wealthy enough.

A third idea would preserve the heritage of this iconic site and create yet another reason to visit beautiful York. Our city has a long tradition of excellence as a centre for treating mental health problems. What could be more appropriate than using part of the site to set up a museum focused on that aspect of medicine? It could even form a partnership with the renowned Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds.

Raising public awareness of mental health issues seem particularly important at a time when the services tasked with treating mental illness are stretched to breaking point. A new museum dedicated to this vital area of public welfare could be used in an educational way, through liaison with schools both locally and right across the region. It would be hard for a teacher to imagine a better trip venue: handy coach parking nearby, a beautiful public park for lunchtime sandwiches, and lots of intellectually and emotionally engaging information on offer for enquiring young minds.

Of course, the fate of Bootham Park Hospital is part of a wider dilemma in society. For decades policy-makers have worked hard to outsource and hand over swathes of our publicly-owned assets to the private sector. As we have seen from Carillion, Serco, the dismal state of our privatised railways and bus services, let alone the rip-off energy utilities which seem to operate as a licence to print money, this process has not worked well for ordinary people. Making sure Bootham Park Hospital truly benefits the citizens of York and future generations could act as an important marker in reversing that trend.

Joni Mitchell’s song Big Yellow Taxi has a memorable phrase: ‘Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone’. Let’s hope we don’t get to feel that way about Bootham Park Hospital.