SIR - M C Kilburn (T&A Letters, May 26) is right. Sandblasting is damaging, erases all character and cannot be reversed.

Too many dignified and aged buildings have been ruined by this indiscriminate obliteration of their warm, aged surface patinas.

There is hardly a stone structure left in Bradford that doesn't look as if it's masquerading as brand new. The practice seems to be an obsession aimed at removing all traces of the city's manufacturing past.

The conditions that allowed the development of the rich tonal ranges and relief shading of our buildings will never return.

Can we not allow some testimony of this proud heritage to remain? Must everything be bleached and blasted to uniformity and sterility?

Phil Greaves, Newall Carr Road, Otley