ONLY days to go to the demise of York City Football Club after 80 years of wonderful history.

Is it too late for Douglas Craig, John Quickfall, Barry Swallow and Colin Webb to have a change of heart and stop this fine club from folding?

Do they really want to see a club which they have worked hard to keep going in recent years now fail to complete the season because of their disgraceful action of running away, legally we are told, with the family silver - i.e. the ground?

If that is what they are intent on, could they give us the reason why in the columns of the Evening Press?

Martin Durham,

Cherrywood Crescent,

Fulford Road, York.

...AS I sat in my Bootham Crescent seat on New Year's Day, a few thoughts occurred to me. As someone who has run three businesses I know only too well how important your asset base is at times to get over the ups and downs of trade and even, on occasion, just to stay in business.

For Mr Craig to have separated the club's assets from the rest of its activity is tantamount to stripping a man naked before asking him to walk through a blizzard.

It should never have been allowed to happen and the Football League should take action to ensure it never happens again to any club.

Isn't there a straightforward solution to the problem? Up and down the country, councils give planning permissions to supermarkets and other developers on the condition that they contribute to the local community by building, or contributing to, a local library or other communal facility.

City of York Council in this case should simply give planning permission for the housing development of Bootham Crescent on the understanding that an amount, be it £1 million or whatever, be donated to the football club towards the development of a new ground.

Martin Alden,

Hull Road,

Dunnington, York.

Updated: 11:31 Tuesday, January 14, 2003