LORD Best, director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, writes that the York planning committee voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Derwenthorpe development (April 12).

Urging us to admire his new housing scheme, Lord Best reminds me of the emperor who called upon his subjects to admire his new clothes.

I was at the meeting, unlike Lord Best, and can advise him that the committee did not vote overwhelmingly in favour of the development and it was disappointing that no one seconded the motion by Coun D'Agorne to call for a public inquiry.

Lord Best mistakenly assumes the Audit Commission inquiry, which is investigating the disposal of the site, is only considering the financial receipt from the sale of the land.

One of the main issues the commission will address is the failure to put the site out to public tender.

This is not just about the financial receipt from the land, as it is possible for disposal of the site to be linked to a number of other criteria, such as the number of houses to be built on the site, community facilities and affordable housing etc.

Because the site was never put out to public tender it is not possible to say that what the foundation is offering is so much better than what any other developer could offer, because we have no idea what other developers might have proposed.

While JRF is a charity, and does deserve special treatment, not only is it getting the site at an undervalue to build an unpopular scheme which only contains a minority of affordable housing, it is set to receive a subsidy of up to several million pounds from the Housing Corporation, a Government quango.

Adrian Wilson,

Grasmere Drive,

York.

Updated: 12:44 Saturday, April 16, 2005