MANY readers will remember York Odeon in its heyday.

It was a true picture palace. The auditorium was decorated in red, black and gold and the screen curtains bore mythical beasts with fearsome claws.

Going there was a chance for everyone to escape the grind in gloriously ostentatious surroundings.

How shocking, then, to see this once-magnificent interior reduced to a shabby, grubby mess. It is nothing less than a betrayal of the York Odeon's legacy.

Seats are cordoned off. Carpets are frayed and filthy. The toilets are the stuff of horror movies.

No wonder audiences are dwindling. Who is going to pay £4.50 to sit in such squalor?

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Odeon owners have deliberately allowed its Blossom Street flagship to deteriorate. Cinema staff were told investment was coming but this turned out to be just another of head office's broken promises.

The unspoken policy is all too clear. Let it go and sell it off.

Odeon bosses clearly have no pride. But we are not altogether surprised. After all this is the company which snubbed York's MP and 14,000 Evening Press readers by refusing to send a senior manager downstairs to collect the Save Our Odeon petition. This is the company which has consistently failed to respond to our questions about the state of the cinema and its future.

This is a company that does not care. Its bosses should be ashamed.

Updated: 09:54 Wednesday, October 20, 2004