I WALKED into town for some last-minute Christmas shopping and entered Parliament Street to be greeted by the very unChristmas vision of something resembling a correctional facility (love these Americanisms).

The wooden huts were surrounded by a big wire fence. Heaven only knows what visitors to York to were supposed to make of this sight.

Why on earth couldn’t the proper market stay in Parliament Street and the St Nicholas Fair be in the market place – then, when it was finished, it wouldn’t have resembled a prison camp.

This council gives the impression of being unable to use joined-up thought.

Chris Elliott, Layerthorpe, York.