WITH regard to your story about the fire at Allerton Castle, your reporter Dan Jones missed the essence of my answers to his questions (Safety lessons to be learned, August 5).

First, I do not own Allerton Castle. It is preserved by the Gerald Arthur Rolph Foundation For Historic Preservation And Education, a charitable foundation established to save Allerton Castle as part of English and World heritage.

Listed historic buildings and monuments are an important part of English heritage and, if lost, the loss is that of the people of England. What Dan Jones did not grasp is that the preserving of listed historic buildings has to be a joint effort on everyone's part, both private and public.

Harrogate Borough Council and English Heritage recognise this when they consider owners as "caretakers". If critical repairs are not done, putting the building in jeopardy, they have the legal right to step in to make the repairs and charge the cost to the owners.

If the fire service and/or other governmental agencies reduce their side of the equation, more of these properties will be lost.

They have to recognise that they have the responsibility to give special attention to the survival of these properties. It is important for the fire service to conduct annual fire drills, to consider any call-out as a possible major fire, to review the buildings' fire systems and make recommendations and/or force changes if necessary and for HM Revenue and Customs to zero/rate for VAT the repairs to the fabric of these structures.

This foundation is now rebuilding the fire-damaged portion of Allerton Castle, only using foundation funds but with the assistance and cooperation of both the public and private sectors.

Dr Gerald Arthur Rolph,

Allerton Castle,

Near Knaresborough.

Updated: 09:38 Tuesday, August 09, 2005