ONCE again planners have ignored York Civic Trust and even English Heritage by allowing an out-of-character building within the city ('City homes branded inept', June 30).

Hardly surprising because I suspect many planners in York were not born or educated in York.

Another alarming aspect of some recent decisions (Burton Croft, Coppergate II etc) is that the people who used to speak up for York - Patrick Nuttgens, Lord Esher and John Shannon, to name but three - have either retired or passed away.

Is it possible the people who live in York do not care about the city as we used to in the Sixties and Seventies? Where are all the people who complained about (and stopped) the inner ring road scheme?

Admittedly, some new buildings are good: the flats filling the Sedman's Carpets site in Walmgate; the replica Queens Hotel on Micklegate; and the development on Spurriergate is a little better than the drab 1960s shops it replaced. Yet how did "they" allow perfectly sound Victorian buildings to be demolished for Barratt clones?

Imagine if Scarcroft School were scheduled for demolition...

John Shaw,

Gray Street, York.

Updated: 10:38 Monday, July 04, 2005