ALTHOUGH I live in York I am currently working in Plymouth.

The old city centre was destroyed by heavy bombing during the war, and planners built a concrete mess in its place, criss-crossed with fast multi-lane highways.

Every day I pass the new shopping mall, currently under construction. It is ugly, a huge windowless edifice. It is made of geometric shapes in garish colours like some monstrous child's toy.

The multi-storey car park has a metal grill with an ironic tree motif. Plymouth has fine sea views, but here shoppers will be herded into a windowless world. It is so ugly it even makes the 1960s centre look quaint by comparison.

Last December Derek Gould, the City of York Council officer who drew up the castle area planning brief, said "the castle area is crying out for retail development".

The city council appears to have learned nothing from the last 15 years of expensive planning process and the public inquiry.

All I can say to sum up the brief is "mall adjusted", because that is all they have done.

It is not "what is best for the site?", but "what sort of shopping mall are Land Securities going to build?". It is not good enough.

I urge the planning committee to throw out these plans. And I urge readers to contact their councillors and tell them that we have had enough of the council's attempts to shove a shopping development down our throats.

But I am not optimistic. The council has a bad reputation in both listening and planning.

Here in Plymouth I think of York, and I fear for its future.

Dave Berkeley,

Tower Place,

York.

Updated: 10:52 Monday, March 20, 2006