WHAT a sad story historians will have to write in respect of the Barbican fiasco. This facility was paid for by land owned by the people and cost £14 million, yet after 15 years of incompetent management, the city council is giving it away for a mere £750,000 to become a night club and a casino.

Other cities take pride in their community provision, other cities have the skill, the vision and the will to deliver a quality service.

What do we get? Well we get a really top class training in how to spot bull. We get told the Barbican sell-off is really a development in our interests when actually the council can't manage it properly.

We are promised replacement facilities that simply do not appear. We get told there was a public consultation when no real consulting was done.

Yes, the craft of avoiding responsibility, of ignoring the community, of telling people something is black when it's white and then selling off the family silver is reaching new heights in the city of York.

Never mind. Instead of keeping fit, being communal and looking after ourselves, we can booze till two in the morning and gamble the night away.

John Issitt,

Danum Road, York.

Updated: 10:21 Tuesday, November 16, 2004