The Star has given countless column inches to those who wish to live in the past (including Susan Richardson who thinks Sheffield's Victorian facades should be preserved at all costs).

We then had the final insult of Andrew Costa claiming that these old buildings should be there for the benefit of him and his mates to fly-post upcoming music events, saying that fly-posting 'actually improves the environment'. And he has the gall to complain about the council, calling them vandals.

Let's have another opinion: Sheffield is at least 50 years behind near neighbours Leeds and Manchester in terms of modern, exciting and innovative city centre development and we always will be while the likes of Mr Costa and Ms Richardson enjoy disproportionate column inches.

Inward investment and a thriving city centre is dependent on one thing only: progress.

It's why there are no workhouses, no chimney sweeps, no rag and tag and no Co-op cafes any more.

It's why Manchester's bars, nightclubs, shops, restaurants and hotels are full with tourists and domestic visitors and why ours are not.

It's why Leeds and Manchester continue to enjoy all the benefits of foreign investment and national and international showcasing and why we do not.

It's also why Sheffield needs multi-storey steel and glass towers (thank goodness for each and every one of the 32 storeys at St Paul's) if it is to prove to the world that it is keeping pace with the rest.

It's why we need to rid ourselves of old-fashioned eating establishments such as the "sadly missed" Castle House roast beef and Yorkshire pud restaurant (don't make me laugh); it's why Sheffield needs contemporary restaurants.

So here is the alternative viewpoint, which I suggest is the view of the majority of the 540,000 sensible occupants of the UK's fourth largest city: knock down the old, environmentally unfriendly Victoriana, build steel and glass towers that rise to the skies, proclaiming that we have finally shed our old industrial appearance.

I am proud of my city; I was born here and have spent 59 years here and will die here. I am proud of my heritage and would do anything to protect it, but heritage is about so much more than preservation.

And before I am accused of it, I am not a philistine who wants to create some Orwellian metropolis, but I am realistic enough to look 40 miles north and 40 miles west and see that we are being left behind by two places that, quite frankly, can't hold a candle to Sheffield.

And it saddens me.

Change is inevitable, and managed change is healthy.

To oppose everything for the sake of it, as many of your recent contributors have done, is a sure death knell for my city. If people want to live in the past, go and live in Stratford-upon-Avon and let me and the rest of us live in, and be proud of, a clean, graffiti-free modern, vibrant and exciting Sheffield that competes with the rest.

The times they are a-changing.

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