PAUL Gledhill's question "How will the St Leger benefit citizens?" (December 16), will elicit the usual response from the city authorities and the racing fraternity.

They will reply to the effect that hotels, restaurants and shops will do more business and "contribute to York's prosperity" in doing so.

But I would suggest this is an entirely false premise since such organisations pay the same business rates, and the same council tax, whether they do well or not; and these are the monies that go, eventually, into the city purse.

York Racecourse Committee pays the city an agreed amount for each year of a ten-year period, the current one dating from 1997 and due for renegotiation in 2007. The 99-year lease for the use of Knavesmire will expire in 2056.

This present annual payment is £224,000 - roughly the price of a decent four-bedroomed house in York!

This raises a few questions in my mind:

1. How does the racecourse committee (a registered charity, I would remind readers) get away with such a piffling amount?

2. How much has been spent in recent years on two new stands and other "improvements"?

3. Are contributions to charities made known, especially to those that are not racing-related?

4. How does an organisation such as this become a charity in the first place?

My recommendation to the city council is that they extract much more money from the racecourse in future years, beginning in 2007. They can clearly afford it!

Phil Fowler,

Bramble Dene,

Woodthorpe, York.

Updated: 08:52 Wednesday, December 21, 2005