AS one who has been involved in putting together reports from the Board School Day Book (1876-1954) of the Haxby School based in Haxby Memorial Hall, I have become acutely conscious of the history ingrained within its walls.

While we can all understand the needs of the present day in providing a site in Haxby in well-designed surroundings, I do feel the envisaged glass-fronted building is completely out of character with its surrounds, albeit a great building in the wrong place.

There is an obvious groundswell of opposition to these specific proposals and, while we must have sympathy for the hard work undertaken by the trustees, such controversy was on the cards after the first open meeting a couple of years ago when new designs and the demolition of the Memorial Hall was proposed.

The present building may not be considered by some to be the most attractive and down the years has suffered for a variety of reasons, yet it sits and fits within the conservation area in a way that is very much in harmony with the community. Unfortunately, a number of old buildings have been destroyed in the York area in the name of progress even though we do see and hear of cases where existing buildings have been adapted with sympathy and great success.

It's ironic that as a nation we appear so often to mourn a lot of what has passed and is lost and spend time and money making replicas of what has gone before.

C Brian Wainwright,

Hall Rise,

Haxby, York.

Updated: 09:27 Wednesday, August 03, 2005