FURTHER to your article about the destruction of the hawthorn tree in the Butcher Terrace Field, part of Rowntree Park (March 17), I should like to add my protests to those of Neil Rogers.

It was a fine, mature tree. Hawthorns grow slowly and can survive severe pruning. Had rotten branches been found, I am convinced that such a lovely tree merited the attention of a tree surgeon rather than felling it.

What sort of world does the council expect us to live in? Our wildlife is a very important part of our heritage.

With the countryside slathered in chemicals and the parks sanitised in the name of "safety", what price our "heritage"?

Penny Cole,

Butcher Terrace, York.

...CITY of York Council has got itself into a real mess over the proposed redevelopment of the Barbican site.

Notwithstanding employment law and the need to give people adequate notice of termination, it seems crazy to have issued Barbican Centre staff with redundancy notices when the redevelopment of the centre hasn't yet been agreed by planners (March 9).

What happens if permission is refused? How can the council possibly say now that they will cease to manage the centre from May 31 without a proper mandate?

Clearly, this redevelopment is being bulldozed through at all costs and Barbican Centre staff and users are being treated shabbily. These are people's lives that are being played with.

The whole idea of the proposed redevelopment of the centre is farcical, unnecessary and at odds with what many people really want. York people are, effectively, losing out.

Apart from the loss of one of the two 25-metre swimming pools at the Barbican now, other activities are being relocated here, there and everywhere across the city.

A comprehensive, self-contained leisure and entertainment centre for the people of York will be lost. All the Barbican Centre needs is a clean-up and facilities to be refurbished, modernised or enhanced. If another hotel and more housing is wanted, the council (and prospective developers) should think proactively about a more appropriate site, with adequate parking conducive to the needs and interests of the city and its citizens.

Ian Conway,

Elvington Park,

Elvington, York.

...THE debate about the Barbican brought an encouraging comment from Charlie Croft. He stated in public that any finance released from the latest unloved and unwanted project will be spent on refurbishing Yearsley and Edmund Wilson pools; not remodelling, not redeveloping but simply spending money on straightforward maintenance which, in the case of the former, has been lacking for 30 years.

Those of us who wish Yearsley to retain its original character as an example of efficient design, unaffected by quirky and ill-advised architects' alterations, don't believe him of course.

Any "funding" derived from the proposed abomination will be siphoned off to finance some other hare-brained scheme.

J Jones,

Rawcliffe Lane,

York.

Updated: 10:05 Tuesday, March 23, 2004