THE theatre at the Barbican is subject to a planning condition requiring 500 car parking spaces. Stuart Wilkins, council associate director, states that only 270 parking spaces will be available at the Barbican, should the proposed redevelopment go ahead.

Mr Wilkins proposes that the "required" 230 spaces needed to complete the planning requirement will be made available at St George's Field, which is some way from the Barbican.

This rather elastic attitude to planning conditions seems typical of the current council obsession with the Barbican development.

St George's Field currently has 430 spaces which are used mainly by tourists and shoppers visiting the city centre. Taking 230 of these spaces to service the Barbican fiasco is bad enough, but the council also plans to use the remaining 200 spaces for conversion into 30 bays for coaches which at present use Kent Street and so will be displaced should the Barbican folly go ahead.

The proposed new operator of the Barbican theatre site intends to trade from 10am until 2am. Therefore, for the planning conditions to be met, 500 spaces must be made available during these hours - this will mean that St George's Field will be a total loss to town centre trading as far as car parking is concerned.

Business persons and those involved in tourism should consider this very carefully, as it is just another consequence of a badly thoug t-out and grossly over-developed Barbican scheme. We have lost too many car parks already.

A city dependent on tourism can ill afford to lose all its city centre parking. The loss of St George's Field is unnecessary and has been brought about by the Barbican plan.

EP Dickinson,

Anne Street,

York.

Updated: 11:12 Friday, April 16, 2004