Tell us where, Keith

I wrote to Coun Orrell on March 8 asking a simple question: where are the alternative badminton courts which the council promised to provide out of the receipts from the Barbican for users displaced by the redevelopment?

So far I have not had the courtesy of a reply from him. Perhaps he would care to answer my question publicly in your paper.

We have heard promises such as this before. When Ryedale Stadium was sold off, the council similarly promised to seek out and provide indoor sports facilities elsewhere.

Nothing ever materialised.

The truth is they do not exist and providing them would cost at least as much as the maintenance of the present facilities. Provision of publicly-funded sports facilities in York is woefully inadequate.

Leisure facilities such as community pools, fitness suites and exercise studios are no substitute for those people who now enjoy judo, trampolining, badminton and many other indoor sports at the Barbican.

Ellen Bradbury,

Whitby Avenue, York.

...HOW ironic that Councillor Galloway's recent comments, accusing Barbican objectors of misinformation, were accompanied by yet another artist's pretty impression (April 24).

This time it was of a swimming pool with the caption, "proposed for the Kent Street site".

On closer examination the small print actually says, "what the pool might look like". This implies the end result could be wildly different.

This is typical of the council/developer's hype and spin which has been prevalent throughout this debate.

It is itself misinformation and this type of truth-twisting is what is making myself and many others so angry.

What do we really know about the proposed new pool?

1. It has been promised by a politician and so it is a politician's promise. How reassuring.

2. It is called a community pool and is going to be a great deal smaller than the two pools on the Barbican site planned for demolition. The public pool has often been very full in my experience, so I am very disappointed that we are losing space as well as one of the pools.

3. It was preferred to a full-size county standard pool by the narrowest of margins in the "consultation" exercise.

4. It is not going to arrive for at least two years.

Apart from this we know little else. May we have more facts and less blah?

Robert Newman,

Manor Farm,

Kirkham Abbey, York.

...LETTER writers have accused the Liberal Democrat administration of "ignoring the wishes of the people of York" because 6,000 signed the petition to stop the development at the Barbican.

Leaving aside the methods used to collect these signatures, a year ago 47 councillors were elected by the people of York. Forty-four of them (Labour and Liberal Democrat) were elected on the promise to redevelop the Barbican site.

This decision had been agreed years previously.

When the Lib Dems won last year we could have reneged on this promise and reversed the decision to develop the site. We would then have let down the thousands of people who are relying on this promise to modernise sporting facilities across the city, particularly at Yearsley and Edmund Wilson pools.

There has been legitimate debate on the way the site should be developed, but the promise to develop the site to replace outdated facilities, modernise the auditorium (not demolish it) and provide resources for other facilities city-wide has full democratic support at the ballot box.

Coun Chris Hogg,

Chair, Leisure and heritage

executive member advisory panel,

Greystone Court, Haxby, York.

...I FIND it hard to believe where Steve Galloway managed to put a figure of £500,000 on keeping the Barbican pool open for six months (Evening Press, May 8).

Was it the usual way of calculation, "think of a figure and double it"? Perhaps he forgot the amount of money going in via entrance fees and doubling that. It may even work out the same.

Where is the justice when the council can spend £1 million to remind the public not to phone while driving?

E A Carter,

Marston Crescent,

Acomb, York.

Updated: 10:18 Thursday, May 13, 2004