I should like to make the following points in support of the Council's plan for the development of Huntington Stadium.

1) Your editorial of 9 July mentioned the Council's "duty to ensure that York retains professional football". I suggest with respect that no such duty exists. A professional football club, however dear to some, is a business venture, and the Council would fail in its duty to all its taxpayers if it unconditionally guaranteed the survival of any one business.

2) Any York City Knights supporter would confirm that watching your team from across a six-lane running track is not ideal - but far better than having no team to watch at all.

3) The Council's prompt generosity in offering YCFC a virtually free tenancy of the Stadium is frequently forgotten; rental payments were one factor in the downfall of the York Wasps. It is quite out of order for the new club to demand a bar and shop, plus all the profits accruing, at a complex they neither own nor pay rent for.

4) The (then) Ryedale Stadium was created when the old York Council declined, quite properly, to guarantee to the RLFC in the time-scale demanded the safety upgrade required after the Bradford fire. The RLFC then sold up and invested the proceeds in the new venue.

Some gratitude would be in order for the modest hope of survival this now affords to another beleaguered club. It is common knowledge where the blame lies for YCFC having no ground to sell, and those with anger to spare should direct it thither, not at the Council for devising a hard-headed, bottom-line solution which can, and, and I certainly hope will, succeed.

Philip Dacre,

Manor Drive South,

York.

Updated: 09:05 Tuesday, July 15, 2003