I DESPAIR of the politicians and people of influence who have been running my home city of York for 20 years.

I cannot understand what they are playing at. First they run down- deliberately, in my view - and then sell off Queen Anne Grammar School.

It gave me a brilliant education from 1955-1962. I came from a working class home and couldn't have got to university without my excellent teachers.

This year we have had the threat to the Minster library - an irreplaceable gem which, so far, has been reprieved - but it really wouldn't surprise me if the City Of York Council decided to turn the Minster into luxury flats.

We have the prospect of Coppergate II, which surely any right-thinking person - except the property developers - would consider to be a step too far. It would destroy the whole feel of the area around Clifford's Tower.

Now I read that the wonderful Mystery Plays may not be performed again until 2010. I have seen them most years they have been performed since I was a child.

I saw their performance in the Minster, which, although grand, I thought was a mistake. Return them to the Museum Gardens and have the cast going around the streets as they used to in the good old days.

Carole Tucker,

Hillside Gardens,

London.

Updated: 10:36 Thursday, July 10, 2003