I understand that York derives much of its income from tourism, and that a significant proportion of this is facilitated by long-distance air travel.

I understand that some people think it is necessary to promote this by sending a nice man in fancy clothes to those countries, with the hope that this will persuade more people to visit us.

City of York Council and the Without Walls partnership have targets to reduce carbon emissions by 25 per cent by 2013, and this year have signed up to 10:10, promising to reduce carbon by ten per cent in 2010.

So I hope Lord Mayor Galvin’s flights (Mayor miles, The Press, May 5) are going to be included in these calculations.

The assorted online carbon calculators I looked at ranged from two tonnes to 3.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide each, and one calculator had a CO2 equivalent button, which takes into account the extra greenhouse effect caused by the vapour trail of water and oxides of nitrogen as well as the CO2.

This means that the two York people travelling return from Manchester to Beijing via Amsterdam would have a CO2e of 19,300kg, which is more than the average European emits in a whole year.

I question the policy of promoting long-distance visitors this way – in fact, I oppose the policy of promoting long-distance visitors. York is going to attract people anyway, and if we are serious about cutting our corporate footprint, we should be encouraging sustainable tourism, not this kind of hugely polluting behaviour.

By promoting flying we are soiling our own nest. York suffers from flooding already, and anthropogenic climate change promises more and worse weather events.

Next time York floods and there’s a cost to the city, think of those flights to China.

John Cossham, Hull Road, York.


• I think it is a disgrace to use taxpayers’ money to bring back the Lord Mayor and his officer back from China business class. There are other officers who could have announced the election results, surely?

Rosemary Stubbs, Rawcliffe Drive, York.


• Once again, our (allegedly) cash-strapped council has thrown away almost £6,000 of our hard-earned money. I wonder if they searched around other countries to find York council taxpayers who had commitments here when they were supposed to have returned home.

Were they offered our money to get them home before the airports were closed? No, of course not. That wouldn’t do for those who are so patronisingly called “ordinary people”.

Would the city have stopped working if those two individuals hadn’t been here?

Of course it wouldn’t. We have a deputy lord mayor, don’t we, so why couldn’t he have done the job?

Other people who were stranded had to pay their own way by whatever means they could, so what is the difference?

Why couldn’t the Lord Mayor pay his own food and hotel expenses? Why would that have cost us a lot more than £6,000 for a few days?

For the Lord Mayor to say it is a “disgrace” that the matter has become political shows how out of touch he is. It is our money that is being spent and every penny of it should be accounted for.

To spend that amount on getting someone home because of an act of God is outrageous. There is, and has been, too much flippancy in spending our money by this Liberal Democrat council.

Let’s get them out as quickly as possible, and have people who can be more careful how they manage the housekeeping.

I am absolutely disgusted at the way this council has thrown away our money, probably without a single thought as to the hardships the residents have had to endure to get the increases in council tax they demand year on year.

Janet S Kitchen-Cooper, Ashley Park Road, York.