Surely I cannot be the only person who finds herself holding back tears as I pass the old Rowntree cocoa works in Haxby Road, and see the demolition of one of the factory blocks.

It really upsets me to think about how very many people are no longer being employed at that York site.

Yes, I like the world being a global village, for with mixing more is likely to come greater understanding and tolerance. But, British employers are not, generally, sending work abroad in order to be philanthropic. On the contrary, they are indulging in slave labour, ie employing people overseas at below the British minimum wage, which, in itself, is ludicrously low and inadequate.

Nestlé is doing some good things. It is offering some fairly traded products and some recyclable packaging, I believe. Sadly though, it does not seem to have caught up very much with Joseph Rowntree’s vision regarding the social welfare of employees.

Nestlé gained a thriving business built on sound Quaker moral principles, so the least they could do would be to try to follow those ahead-of-their-time principles and continue to be forward thinking.

That would not only make good, profitable business sense but would generate goodwill at many levels, even beyond the realms of chocolate manufacture.

No city can afford to rely so heavily on its major employer, the NHS, and on the service industry in the form of cafés, restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Such things are far too susceptible to downturns and redundancies.

It’s so disappointing not to be able to be as proud of York as we used to be when we could enjoy having too large, successful chocolate factories. People affected by Cadbury’s unfortunate sell-off must feel much the same.

We are, sadly, losing so much more than the good aspects of chocolate production in Britain.

Quaker businessmen and women, in many cases, led the way by setting astonishingly good conditions and standards for their workforce and their products – they lived their faith in such a way that their example was worthy of being followed.

Would that we did not know such worthwhile ways out; would that we have the humility to learn from them, and thereby make working conditions and pay better throughout the world.

Janet Rowntree, The Dower House, Escrick, York.