WHILE other regions are trying to attract visitors with gimmicks like the London Eye and the Angel Of The North, I think North Yorkshire County Council should be congratulated on its decision to be different, by building a giant incinerator with a 260ft chimney (higher than York Minster) in the heart of the county.

This rural county, which is primarily dependent on tourism and agriculture, will be terminally crippled overnight by this single inspirational decision and the consequences will mean that tens of thousands of jobs will be lost at a time when unemployment is already looming for many more.

This council has been extremely clever. It is using money which we don’t have (It’s called a PFI credit and defies any financial sense) to build a monstrosity which we don’t want or need (built incidentally by a foreign company), and at a time when we are being forced to cut back in many other areas (schools, police etc) in order to balance the books.

This is really enlightened thinking and has the added benefit of blighting up to about 150 square miles of prime farmland as well.

I’m particularly impressed with the choice of site, which will have maximum visual impact. Halfway between Harrogate and York and equidistant between the Dales and the North York Moors, it is a well-chosen position within sight of the A1 and with the added bonus of being adjacent to a Grade I listed castle, a newly built golf course and a planned five-star hotel. Surely it can’t get any better than this.

Laurie Boyle, High Farm Grange, Hopperton, Knaresborough.