In marking twenty years since a planning inspector rejected Coppergate Riverside plans for the Eye of York (The fight against ‘Shoppergate’, Press online, February 27) it is important to tell the full story.

Opposition to development proposals at Clifford’s Tower began earlier when a previous application known as “Coppergate II” was lodged in the late 1990s.

The former City Planning Officer and retired Inspector, Eric Pearson, was so horrified by the scale of those proposals he decided something had to be done to stop it.

He was the catalyst for a small action group of myself and the late architect Tom Adams. We were joined by historian Alison Sinclair, the late Philip Crowe and the civil engineer James Taylor. We adopted the name York Alliance.

Lots of people later jumped on the bandwagon of York Tomorrow and the Castle Area Campaign but it was down to only a few in those early times to convince the planning committee to overturn officer support for “Coppergate II”.

This was achieved in a special planning meeting after cherry pickers were used at a site meeting to demonstrate just how high and how close to the Castle mound the buildings would have been.

I think credit must be given to the late Eric Pearson. Had he not motivated others to stand against “Coppergate II” that development would have been nodded through. We would today have a behemoth despoiling the Eye of York and the current proposals for public open space would never even have reached the drawing board.

I suggest the new public space be named Eric Pearson Place.

Matthew Laverack, architect,

Lord Mayors Walk, York