I was surprised to read in The Press that Andrew Waller supported a big screen for York (York’s Olympic big screen plan abandoned, June 16).

If the executive had supported a big screen we would have had one in 2008 when one was offered to the city. While I was executive member for leisure and culture, the city council was offered a half-million-pound screen, at no cost to the city, as long as we found a location and paid about £25,000 a year to maintain it.

There was no shortage of possibilities, either for locations or content. With two universities training hundreds of arts and film students every year, the city has a fantastic and very under-used resource of new and exciting talent.

As well as showing the Olympics, the city could have shown, say, live opera from Covent Garden, student art and film, films from the Yorkshire film archive, or films of the York mystery plays. Another UK city has used a big screen to show local wildlife stories, such as the raising of a family of kestrels high on a city centre building. The list is endless.

I am sure I would have noticed if either Waller or Galloway had supported the idea. In truth, the idea, which was supported by York@Large and my department and various partners, was just kicked from committee to committee as a way of not making a decision and yet another opportunity to create a vibrant city was frittered away.

Christian Vassie Blake Court, Wheldrake, York