TO those who wish to retain the faade of Haxby Memorial Hall but modernise behind it I should like to make the following points.

The proposed redevelopment is needed to replace the crumbling, 130-year-old building we have got now with something that can serve the community for the rest of the 21st century. Such a hall would allow cars to get in and out of the car park at the same time. But retaining the faade will also mean retaining the present narrow, single lane passageway. A modern village hall would be welcoming, with a main door that invited passers-by to come in. But the Memorial Hall has its entrance tucked away round the back, almost invisible from the main road (a gift to burglars and vandals).

There is no obvious place in the current faade where a reasonable- sized entrance could sensibly be put, so I guess that feature will have to be retained too.

Finally, retaining just the faade isn't going to work, unless we are prepared to have the hall look like a prop on a Hollywood movie set.

Realistically, we would also have to retain the roof and much of the side walls, all of which would drastically curtail the architects' freedom to design a workable new hall.

Clearly the present building has considerable nostalgia for some people but, as a piece of architecture, it has little merit. It's not even a good example of a late Victorian school.

Haxby now has a chance to come up with a village hall that could serve us well into the second half of this century.

Crippling the development right from the start by insisting we retain an awkward frontage is not going to help achieve that.

Charles Anderson,

Springwood,

Haxby, York.

Updated: 11:03 Thursday, August 25, 2005