Why is City of York Council going ahead with spending huge sums of taxpayers’ money on a new headquarters when Aviva says it will shortly leave its building at Monks Cross.

It is some 80,000 sq ft, the biggest building in York available by far, state of the art, close to facilities and public transport and less than five years old.

It could be rented or purchased for less than half the money the council is planning to spend and is ready to move into virtually now.

We are in a period of austerity, and it seems lunacy to me to (and somewhat insulting) for the council to spend these sums when budgets are under severe pressure and there are perfectly good existing facilities available in the city.

What will happen if buildings like this are left empty? Please, City of York Council, see some sense and rein in your expenditure, as the rest of us have to.

John Reeves, Chairman, The Helmsley Group, Monks Cross, York.