I AM watching the debate on whether York needs a major retail outlet with interest, noting some readers saying that a development on the lines of Meadowhall would be of great benefit, while others declare the last thing York needs is to become a clone of any other town or city's high street.

While Meadowhall is on my doorstep, I rarely step foot in the place, preferring the fresh air and the independent smaller businesses in a reviving Sheffield city centre.

Sure, Sheffield has the all-too familiar brands like any other town but in the Devonshire quarter (yes, we've been all quartered now!) there are some wonderful little independent and slightly alternative shops.

And it's these latter businesses that wet my whistle whenever I'm in York. It makes sense that I will visit a business that is unique to York, less so the chain stores I can find in my own city.

But what is it that brings me back to York time and again? No, it's not the shops (after all I am a man!). It's the many other attractions York:

the buildings, the history, the churches, the walls, the bars and the cobbled streets

the beautiful rivers with their cruisers, arched by magnificent bridges and overlooked by more wonderful buildings and people (yes, "people". You sometimes don't realise how alive York is till you walk through the streets of Sheffield)

the parks, the ramparts covered in daffodils, the greenery and the trees

the public houses, little nuggets each one.

I appreciate my view is that of a tourist, but York is a city I love very much and the thought that the likes of Clifford Tower should take second place to a mini Meadowhall fills me with horror.

David L Fairey,

Peterborough Road,

Lodge Moor,

Sheffield.

Updated: 10:00 Monday, April 03, 2006