JR STONE says the tree in the middle of the Eye Of York should be cut down (February 5).

What a dreadful idea!

In fact, its almost as nonsensical as the city's council's decision not to look into, let alone carry through, the proposal to create a park next to Clifford's Tower (February 6).

One of the first things one notices when going to London from York is that, paradoxically, "The Smoke" is far better off for trees than we are.

London has more, and bigger, trees by the roadside and it also has many large car parks, and even major forest areas such as Hampstead Heath.

The big conurbations are built on the countryside-in-the-city principle and they balance out the industrial and built-up aspects of their landscapes with parks and trees.

York, by contrast, is a virtual desert, presumably because people think of Yorkshire itself as being rural and therefore assume York is more arboreal than it actually is. That is one reason why the proposal to make the area next to Clifford's Tower into a memorial park is such a brilliant idea.

It would make a fitting, and necessary, tribute to the many Jewish citizens killed in the massacre. It would be a permanent reminder that racial hatred should not be tolerated; and it would give York what it so badly needs - a new park south of the city which would complement the Museum Gardens to the north.

The tree in question is the "pupil" in the "eye" of York; without it, the whole museum courtyard would look desolate.

David Goldman,

Trafalgar Street,

South Bank, York.

Updated: 10:46 Friday, February 13, 2004