Comments about Coppergate II and York

Yorkshire celebrities oppose Coppergate shopping mall too.

Famous Yorkshiremen and women from the arts, media, politics and sport have entered the fray in the battle against the Coppergate shopping mall proposed next to the scheduled ancient monument of Clifford's Tower in York. Household names such as Freddie Truman, Maureen Lipman, Bernard Ingham, Tony Benn and Alan Bennett have added their names to the Castle Area Campaign's petition against Coppergate II.

Each new signatory to the petition has some connection with York or Yorkshire and a personal, professional or academic interest in the city's past or future. Many added their own particular comments which are shown below...

Victor Allen	Editor, Artscene magazine
'The Coppergate II proposal has all the hallmarks of a limited, commercially-driven scheme that will benefit a small group of people at the expense of the city's character, its inhabitants and its visitors. The development will have an adverse effect on Clifford's Tower and the Castle Museum. York has always been one of the UK's finest pedestrianised cities. Visitors to Leeds or Wakefield soon find that they are committed to an urban experience of malls and air-conditioned spaces where any pause for rest of recreational activity has to be paid for in one way or another. York has a fine heritage of providing space (and views) for artists to sketch, for outdoor performances and for humble picnics - and while I know this statement has an air of bathos, the reality is that it is precisely this kind of environment that encourages chance conversations and the growth of a sense of community. I don't in any way seek to condemn York to being a tourist city in aspic; I firmly believe in the value of urban concentrations defining themselves through economic strategies that often pose challenges to tradition and historic usage. But there is nothing in the Coppergate II proposals that suggests the economic benefits urgently necessitate the development, or that the proposals have sympathetically addressed the specific nature of the site.'

John Arden and Margaretta D'Arcy	Playwrights
'The ancient structure of the City of York must not be smothered by the ephemeral mud pies of oversized and over-hyped commercial development that will in any event be obsolete and a charmless ruin in less than a century (when no-one, least of all its bankrupt owners, will feel inclined to pay for its cleaning-up!)'

John Baker	Novelist and York resident.
'This development flies in the face of stated Government intentions and policy. Its development really needs to be more sensitive than this.'

Stan Barstow	Yorkshire-born novelist

Tony Benn	Politician

Alan Bennett	Playwright
'The last thing required in the centre of York is more shopping. It's already impossibly busy and punishing to visit. This scheme is also totally out of keeping with its surroundings and is a whim to the brutal and destructive schemes of the 1970s and 80s.'

David Blake, and Rita Blake	Conductor of York Symphony Orchestra

Dame A.S. Byatt	Yorkshire-born writer

Margaret Drabble CBE	Yorkshire-born novelist

Helen Dunmore	Yorkshire-born author
'I strongly agree that this proposed development is out of character for the area, and will adversely affect York's life and trade.'

Professor Steve Ellis	York-born poet

Jane Gardam	Author, born in North Yorkshire

Darren Gough	Yorkshire and England cricketer

Michael Grandage	Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

Trevor Griffiths	Playwright and York resident
'Read some history!'

Sir Ernest Hall	Musician, composer and pianist
'The greater good'

Willis Hall	Author, dramatist, screenwriter

The Earl of Harewood	Yorkshire landowner and peer

Lord Denis Healey	Yorkshire-born peer and politician

Barry Hines	Sheffield-based author

Glyn Hughes	Yorkshire-based author
'A "development" on this site will damage one of the small number of the most historically important and beautiful cities in the world. It's a scandal that it was contemplated in the first place.'

Sir Bernard Ingham	Ex-Press Secretary to Margaret Thatcher
'Ye gods! The Philistines are at it again. Clifford's Tower has survived fire, floods, flogging of stone for profit and approaches of people who want to exploit the site. It's a place where people can commune with the past and get some idea of York.'

Maureen Lipman	Actress and writer
'Anti more shopping centres anywhere, particularly on historic sites.'

Mairi MacInnes	Singer, composer and songwriter
'York could be far more beautiful than it is at present. To degrade it with shops and a blatant commercial 'development' will eventually turn visitors away instead of attracting them. We need a splendid design to show off the historical and architectural significance of the Castle area; and that means a brilliant landscaping scheme - a park, with grass, areas of trees, a fountain, benches, statues.'

Roger McGough	Poet

Blake Morrison	Poet, novelist and journalist

Jeff Nuttall	Writer, artist, actor
'Forty years of Patrick Nutgens and others putting a great deal of thought into the planning of York - this piece of illiteracy would destroy their achievements.'

Claire Rayner	Writer and journalist

Sheila Rowbotham	Historian, sociologist and writer

Ken Smith	Yorkshire-born writer
'Such development would be an intrusion in this environment and setting.'

Janet Street-Porter	Editor, Independent on Sunday

Anthony Thwaite OBE, FRSL, FSA	Writer
'As a Yorkshireman, a poet and an archaeologist, I deplore the terrible Land Securities plan.'

Freddie Trueman OBE	Yorkshire and England cricketer
'I have always fought for the heritage and history of my great country. I will help all I can to stop the destruction of such a beautiful city.'

Naomi Wallace	US writer living in Yorkshire
'I am very glad to sign this petition.'

Frank William Wallbanks FBA, CBE	Emeritus Professor, University of Liverpool

Zoe Wanamaker CBE	Actress

Barbara Wright
'Keep the campaign alive!'