IN his anxiety to correct "misinformation" about the proposed handover of York City Archives to the university, Coun Alan Jones is perpetrating misinformation of his own (Letters, February 12).

The "new modern records facility" he mentions will only need to be set up if the more glamorous and valuable ancient records are transferred to Heslington.

So we shall have two record offices instead of the present one, both paid for by York council tax payers.

The £80,000 figure for the annual cost of this new facility, which Coun Jones rejects, is taken from the council's own report.

Read it, Coun Jones, and you will also see that the proposed arrangement with the university is not a "partnership" but a straightforward contract, whereby the city will hand over nearly £3.5 million to the university over the next 25 years, in addition to the £2 million spent during this period on the facility for modern records.

In her letter, Hilary Layton, the university's press and public relations officer, misses the point altogether. The local users of the City Archives are not at all "mystified" by the present situation, but are well aware of the facts.

Eighty-five per cent of those contacted in a "random telephone poll" (never published by the council) were "very satisfied" with the service in its present city centre location, and most represented by our local user group are unanimously opposed to the move to Heslington - especially at the very considerable extra cost to the city it will involve.

Charles Kightly,

Chairman,

Friends of York City Archives,

Huntington Road, York.

Updated: 10:39 Tuesday, February 26, 2002