I FEEL it is time York tourism bosses and Gillian Cruddas in particular are brought to account.

To claim that York enjoyed an Ascot boom is clearly nonsense. Hotel occupancy of 90 per cent is not unusual in this city during the tourist season. What was unusual during Ascot week was the almost deserted city centre.

Many businesses, including my own, suffered a damaging loss of business as regular customers stayed away and were not replaced by the predicted thousands of extra visitors to York who seemingly stayed on the racecourse or headed straight out of town once racing was over.

A complete lack of foresight has resulted in WTA now shelving plans for their big wheel, at least for this year. To even contemplate siting the wheel in Tower Gardens showed a total disregard for either the historic heritage of that part of the city or the many hundreds of York residents who avail themselves of the facilities in that area.

I believe that the opportunity to deliver real benefits to the people of York has been squandered due to Ms Cruddas and her colleagues failing to do their homework.

Paul Lamb,

Gladstone Garage,

Redeness Street,

Layerthorpe, York.

Updated: 09:13 Saturday, July 09, 2005