WHAT a tremendous article by Tony Scott, ex-planning officer for Durham City Council (Echo, Aug 2). He puts the case so well against the mass expansion upon which the university is intent, constantly pointing out the fact that Durham is a small city.

Most people in County Durham love Durham City and are aghast at the state into which it has been allowed to fall, with a county council which gives planning permission for completely unsuitable developments, detracting from its beauty, and are even intent on further development to house themselves unnecessarily on a site in the city centre.

With the proposed university expansion, the town will become even more of a campus than it is at present and there will be very little room for residents.

Are the university and Durham County Council not able to see what they are doing to this small, ancient city?

Have they so little feeling for heritage and history that they are content to promote the ruination of what was once a lovely little town?

I love looking at Michael Richardson's books which show a Durham of the past full of residents and character. The Durham of the future will have neither but will have been subsumed into Durham university.

Please write some more articles, Tony Scott, and perhaps the two offenders which are guilty of this destruction will start listening and begin to realise how unhappy so many people are at what has happened and what will happen to Durham.

Margaret Purdom, Durham.