Proposals by NorthStar to demolish Northern and Rougier Houses and replace skilled job space with apartments are a sad reflection of where York is heading as a city, if they and other plans like them are approved.

Attempts to switch the use of land to executive-type housing are based on the simple economics of what’s most profitable, rather than what is in the interests of the city’s residents. Let’s be quite clear. York Central is not the whole or any part of the solution to York’s economic needs at present, given the lack of funding from Government to get it going. The council continues to see quality jobs space in the city lost to housing or hotels, driving down wage levels and ensuring York becomes a dormitory city where people will increasingly travel to find better-paid work.

York experienced the biggest real terms wages drop of all UK cities in 2018. This should have been a wake-up call, but nothing has changed. This council will continue sleepwalking into even more economic woe if it doesn’t halt the loss of key jobs space soon.

And there is no guarantee Northern Rail jobs will remain in the city, which would be a huge loss, symbolically and otherwise.

Cllr Danny Myers,

St Olaves Road, Clifton,

Leader of the Labour Group,

City of York Council