AS a lifelong resident of York in my eighties, I would like to give my opinion on changes in York city centre.

I deplored the siting and look of the so-called "splash palace" when it was proposed, and have not changed my opinion.

Why didn't we leave the previous underground toilets at each end of Parliament Street and smaller facilities on street level for the disabled, bearing in mind at least four stores in the area have toilets and lifts?

The market could have been left in Parliament Street, or part of it, and the present site in Newgate left as a quiet area with seats and plants.

Unfortunately, our present market has many empty stalls most days - of course, the way we do our shopping has changed.

However, when a farmers' market or a continental market is held in Parliament Street, they area always well attended. This does not benefit our regular market traders, who have always been loyal to the city.

It seems to me that the powers that be are treating our city as a large chessboard. Make a move here - make a move there - but never checkmate.

How much public money is lost on moves which were a mistake in the first place?

Joan Bower, Hansom Place, York.


* I see that the members of the council are now unanimous in their condemnation of that architectural excrescence in Parliament Street (Time to splash out, The Press, January 24).

Would the majority of those who were in favour of its construction please stand up. Then there is the architect, our 20th century successor to Carr, Atkinson, Harper and Brierley. Surely he deserves a mention?

The citizenry were against it from the start, but the most heartfelt and eloquent plea for the preservation of Parliament Street came from the pen of a foreign tourist.

He deserves more than a mention: he deserves the freedom of the city.

I should dearly wish to see that letter, written in the true spirit of William Etty, and equally justified by time, reproduced as an acknowledgement to the author and as a reminder to us of the follies of the past.

As to the future of the site, why is it, I wonder, that the municipal mind believes an urban space exists only to be filled?

The simplicity of our once lovely townscape is disfigured with clutter.

As music without pause is mere noise, so a city without space is mere confusion.

Once the garlanded bulldozers have done their noble work, and the detritus joyfully carted away, let it be.

William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York.