I READ your feature on the future of the city centre with interest (March 30), and sadly it is all too predictable.

It would seem that the city council wants our city to cater almost solely for tourists, and sod what the locals think!

Unsurprisingly, visitors to the city and the owners of those businesses which make most of their money from the tourist trade are all in favour of the idea.

Isn't it about time that this council showed some consideration for the residents of York, who fund the council's frequently incompetent and misguided activities through council tax?

So York needs more upmarket shops does it? Great. Perhaps they should ask the people who actually live here and see what they think.

I doubt if the average resident (particularly a younger one) is going to be all in favour of more "upmarket" (for which read expensive) shops.

Especially if it is taken into account that many of them will be earning the average (for which read very poor) York wages, and in quite a few cases will be living in rented accommodation because they cannot afford to buy a house at York's greatly inflated prices.

Let's face it, these "upmarket" shops are there primarily for the tourists, not locals.

The market in Newgate is one of the ever-decreasing number of exceptions.

I personally don't much like the fairground, but clearly many do, so why should it be axed just because some self-important local shop owners happen to think it's tacky?

When visiting other towns and cities, I increasingly notice that they are different from York in that they exist primarily to serve the people who live there.

Isn't it about time that City of York Council put the 180,000 residents first?

David Bryant,

Yarburgh Way,

York.

Updated: 10:25 Friday, April 01, 2005