I'VE read with interest the readers' letters and various sports articles regarding proposals for York City's new home and, frankly, the appeals made to the City of York Council for assistance in helping to find and fund a suitable location can only fall on deaf ears.

Appealing to their better nature just won't work.

Look at the evidence. The current incumbents are just not interested in sport, as witnessed by the systematic dismantling of sports and leisure facilities across the city.

The Barbican Centre, Edmund Wilson Pool and the failure to grant planning consent for the proposed Civil Service Sports Centre are just some examples of what has gone on in recent times.

An expanding population and reducing facilities is order of the day. York is no Doncaster.

Much better to offer an alternative proposal that the Lib Dems may find hard to turn down.

How about a joint venture? The new City of York Council offices could be incorporated into the building of the football stadium stands on a central site such as that behind the railway station?

Just think of the land that this would free up in the Hungate development, where many hundreds more expensive money-making apartments could be built, which in turn will serve to swell the council's coffers further.

Is this such a mad idea? Everyone will be happy; well, nearly.

G Flakes, St Swithin's Walk, York.