WHO'S in charge of this Millennium year? I want to give him a piece of my mind. Halfway through the biggest 12 months for a thousand years and my mind is unboggled and my spirits unlifted.

Just a year ago things seemed very different. The anticipation was building. We were looking forward to a firework-filled fiesta, a jamboree that would make the Rio Carnival look like a school fete. Every day would be the Great Exhibition of 1851, VE Day and the 1966 World Cup Final rolled into one.

People were expecting to be swept up by the spirit of liberation, embracing strangers and dancing in the streets to celebrate an era of peace, love and cheap CDs.

A year ago this week, final details of the attractions in the Millennium Dome were being unveiled. The contents would be "awe-inspiring" they said. Recruitment began for 2,000 "hosts" who would greet 35,000 daily visitors to the Dome.

In the event, the Dome's contents drastically failed to live up to expectations. The public blamed this on a Government that is all promise and no trousers, and has not forgiven it since. And lots of those people who were taken on as greeters have since been shown the door as visitor numbers slumped.

In the very same week one year ago, organisers of York's Millennium Bridge outlined the timetable for the building work. Foundations would be laid last July, bridge components would arrive last November, and it would be open to the public this spring. But we're still waiting.

The Queen is due in York to snip the ribbon on the bridge later this summer. At this rate she will be experiencing deja vu, as she was forced to open an unfinished Millennium Bridge in London some weeks ago. She must think her kingdom is a half-finished building site; perhaps she should swap the crown for a hard hat.

Last week the London 'Blade of Light' bridge finally opened - and promptly shut again after it turned into a giant swing, to the evident surprise of engineers. But this kind of cock-up is synonymous with big Millennium projects. Even the giant Ferris wheel on the River Thames, now a big hit, was shut down for months because of loose widgets, or somesuch.

We must be positive. It is not too late to salvage this year of years. In York, the Let's Party street festival and Carnival 2000 initiatives look set to give us some good memories with which to bore our grandchildren. And when the Millennium Bridge and River Ouse walkways do finally open, they will provide a lasting benefit to residents.

However, the Millennium momentum has undoubtedly been lost. We could do with an ambitious new project to reinvigorate it.

My suggestion is a long shot, because it requires York planners to undertake a leap of imagination. Nevertheless, here it is: the city rejects the Coppergate Riverside development, this latest monument to our desire to buy things we don't really need.

Plans to pull down the Ryedale Building still go ahead, before the area around the River Foss and Clifford's Tower is transformed into a landscaped park where folk can relax free from the stress of spending money.

Anyone have their own ideas?

ENGLAND'S Euro 2000 reversal of fortune against Portugal will have reminded many fans of their exit from the World Cup 30 years ago. The team were 2-0 up in the quarter finals yet the West Germans were able to equalise, and eventually beat us 3-2.

But back then the English fans did not hurl abuse at the team, and Bobby Moore did not respond with an unpleasant gesture, as David Beckham did on Monday night.

Times have changed. Unfortunately, the results haven't.