City of York Council is pleased to receive the results of the Evening Press surveys into public opinion regarding Land Securities' proposals for developing Coppergate II.

This will be valuable information to add to the results of our own consultation and comment made directly to the council.

Clearly there is a wide difference of opinion between the people who shop in the city centre - most of whom support the scheme - and those who have responded to the questionnaire where the majority object to the scheme.

I can assure the public that we will be considering the points raised from the whole consultation process very seriously during the planning application.

There are, however, some specific points that have emerged from these surveys and letters sent to the council and the Evening Press which I seek to clarify.

Some people suggested area next to the Castle Museum and Clifford's Tower could be turned into a park.

Ignoring for one moment the major economic objectives, it is very unlikely the council would be able to finance the development and running of such a park with the major loss of public funds and cost of maintenance. We would lose the existing car park revenue of more than £500,000 and, together with the cost of building and running the park, it could mean we would have to find up to £375,000 of public funds year on year to create such a park.

Much has been said by certain retailers (some of whom may have a direct interest in the development of out-of-town-shopping) in the potential effect of the proposed Coppergate II on the historic core of York.

One of the council's key objectives has been to increase the vibrancy and life of the city centre by extending the offer of slightly larger, quality shopping.

This is to ensure we maintain a balance with out-of-town-shopping and remain competitive with those other towns and cities in our region and elsewhere. It is obvious that those city centres where such investment is not made are in decline as businesses seek to move elsewhere.

The council has carried out its own indpendent retail impact assessments for the city as a whole and also to consider if there would be any linear retail distortion away from the historic shopping areas. This work has been carried out by Hillier Parker, one of the country's leading consultants in this area.

They are also well aware of both the retail trends and shopping patterns in York and the surrounding area and have monitored the changes in this city over several years.

They conclude that they do not expect any substantial shift in the centre of attraction in the city centre and the result of the development would be largely beneficial for the centre as a whole.

They further state that the historic 'tourist core' of shops would remain largely unaffected by the Coppergate Riverside development.

One of the other key issues raised is the design and impact of the Clifford's Tower elevation.

Your readers will be aware that the reason for the refusal of the last scheme was the distance of the scheme and 'massing' in relation to Clifford's Tower.

The developer has had extensive discussions with groups such as English Heritage and council officers and the new scheme has done a lot to address the original problems including the fact that it has been moved back from Clifford's Tower and curved to provide a better 'line' when viewed from Castlegate.

We are still in discussion with the developer about this critical design issue, but it is clear that there are very different views from discussions with the consultees as to how this design should be treated.

It is important to ensure we have a quality of architecture and materials which respects, yet doesn't necessarily compete with, the surrounding buildings.

Roy Templeman,

Director of environment and

development services,

City of York Council.