What are the city planners thinking about - an eleven storey block inside and close to the city walls? (Plan for 11-storey block and Roman attraction, January 11). The building may be of glass but it will not be invisible - and once again with a flat roof. York’s roofscape used to be a picturesque mixture of pantiled and slated roofs of differing pitches and heights. Now we are surrounded by rectangular blocks of student accommodation and hotels, most with flat roofs.

A few years ago new buildings had to have pitched roofs - think of the Coppergate Centre, The Hilton Hotel opposite Clifford’s Tower or even the block of apartments built on the Gladstone Garage site in Layerthorpe.

The continental medieval towns and cities are keen to preserve their beautiful roofs and skylines - but not York. We are ruining ours.

June Wood,

East Parade, York

  • Editor’s note: The ‘Roman quarter’ plans are still plans only: they have not yet been approved by city planners

This building is about profit, nothing else

Yet again we see a proposed development not in keeping with the city. They say it is sympathetic. What? It is totally out of character - too tall and it dwarfs the Maltings pub and corner cafe. The only thing it will do is increase profits for the developers.

Dave Matthewman,

Green Lane, Acomb

This is the age when our heritage was forgotten

I wonder what the ‘York Narrative’ will say in a couple of decades time when talking about the present day activities.

In all probability it will be referred to as ‘the time our heritage was forgotten, when building lines were forgotten, high rise flats and hotels blackened the skyline, the medieval streets were cut off from sunlight and darkness prevailed’.

Where on Earth are we taking our city? Why do we need ‘experts’ to come from other featureless towns to tell us what and how to alter things? We should be doing it ourselves.

Please don’t say we don’t have the talent: even worse, don’t say it was by public consultation.

I said in these columns a few months ago that the “’Castle Gateway”’ exercise of sticky post it labels on clip boards covered every possible idea but we would finish up with what the so-called experts suggested at first, and I’m afraid it looks las though that will happen.

The next thing on the horizon is the Castle Museum extension. What are the odds on it taking up a large area of the old car park and devouring a large piece of the green space that a vast majority of citizens wanted?

It’s a sad fact that our councillors are too occupied with point-scoring over each other and using their positions as ticks on political CVs to worry about what is happening to the basic foundations of our city,

We can but hope for change.

Brian Watson,

Beckfield Lane, York