So, it’s consultation time for all good citizens once more. The Local Development Framework is out. We have until November 7 to wade through the 789 pages of Core Documents.

The truly concerned citizen may also want to digest the Evidence Base, Allocations Documents, Land Reviews and various ancilliary studies, well over 2,000 pages in all.

At a meeting recently, I heard one of the proud authors of the City Centre Conservation Area Appraisal describe the 593-page document as “not definitive”.

And so it wasn’t: five of its seven “priorities for action” were to write further strategies, policies and plans: more paper for the concerned citizen to digest in our scarce spare time.

It is worth taking time to get these plans right, and there is a lot that the council needs to know about how we view our city. But suppose we end up with the perfect plan, then what? Well, we already have lots of good policies in place: to protect the green belt, promote and prioritise the city centre and reduce traffic.

Yet these didn’t stop them giving the nod to the Heslington East land grab, and it doesn’t look like they’ll stop the council going all guns for Monks Cross II – the one with the “community stadium” tacked on to it. So York’s football fans can look forward to trekking out to the edge of the city to a smaller stadium with no pubs for miles. I would have thought they feel insulted at being cynically used by Oakgate PLC to get political support for a shopping centre expansion.

So – respond to the consultation if that’s your thing, but save some energy for the real battles, because there will be plenty more of them.

Richard Lane, Frances Street, York.