IN your comment about the Barbican 'We're missing out' you say 'we are being denied an important sporting, social and arts venue by this long-rumbling row' (Monday, July 18).

We are not being denied these things by the "row" but by the sell-off/give-away of these facilities. What we are getting is a vast late-night drinking establishment or nightclub, another hotel and 250 more flats in the area plus, perhaps, a small swimming pool.

If we were going to get "an important sporting, social and arts venue" that operated during normal waking hours, the whole neighbourhood would support it.

P M Blanchard,

Heslington Road, York.

Updated: 10:58 Thursday, July 21, 2005