SO Steve Carroll's article (Budget Travel, April 20) couldn't find the "council on jollies" headline it was obviously designed to unearth.

There was, however, a real story to be told, and that is how insular and inward-looking City of York Council has become.

There is a world of opportunities out there. For example, the EU has a budget of 13 billion euros a year to fund innovation and research, soon to grow to 50 billion a year. This money isn't only for the poor areas of Europe.

How is York to benefit if we are too snooty or too timid to ever meet the people controlling the purse strings?

Of course, we can carry on whinging from the sidelines about the French, Germans, Dutch, Italians, Spanish et al getting all the money. We are very good at that.

And how can we avoid endlessly reinventing the wheel if we do not learn from others?

Tackling climate change, or looking after the elderly, or improving housing, for example, are problems faced by towns and cities all over Europe, not just in York.

If York were a business and heard that a money-saving technology had been developed in, say, Sweden, someone would immediately be dispatched to learn more. That's not "going on a jolly", it's common sense.

It's right that public money shouldn't be used for holidays in the sun, but we shouldn't feel proud that York only spent £4,695.63 on foreign trips over five years.

In two trips to the EU as a councillor, I have picked up dozens of good ideas I am hoping to see introduced in York.

What we should be doing is asking ourselves what opportunities we have missed for the city by being so terrified of knee-jerk criticism that we stay in our bunker, going nowhere, meeting nobody, and learning nothing.

Coun Christian Vassie,

Blake Court,

Wheldrake,

York

Updated: 09:03 Tuesday, April 25, 2006