THE Reinvigorate York consultation tells us about proposals for improving Exhibition Square.

One of the things proposed could be the removal of the statue of William Etty from his position standing in the middle of the square, overlooking Bootham Bar.

What it doesn’t tell us is why Mr Etty was put there in the first place, and why his statue is a listed structure on the Statutory List for York.

Not only does it celebrate a renowned York painter who was a Royal Academician, but it also commemorates Mr Etty’s leading part in the campaign to save Bootham Bar from destruction in the 1830s when St Leonard’s Place was created.

It is thanks to him and his fellow campaigners that today we can walk a circuit of the City Walls.

To remove his statue from the position where he overlooks the Bar he helped to save would be to depreciate an achievement, the results of which we can still enjoy more than a century later.

Mr Etty should stay put.

Alison Sinclair, Norfolk Street, York.