This is Leicestershire --I would like to thank the city council for the chance to see inside some of Leicester's hidden spaces during the Heritage Sunday event.
The opportunity to see inside the Magazine Gateway, the great hall of Leicester Castle and Wygston's House for the first time was a chance not to be missed.
I would urge anyone who has never visited to take a look next time they are open.
Each of the fascinating guided tours was well attended, with a mix of local people and British and foreign tourists.
Several people I spoke to said they passed by these buildings every day but had always wondered what they were and what lay inside them.
While exploring these evocative buildings, it was hard to avoid a sense that they were unloved and under-utilised. The state of the castle's great hall appears perilous and both the Magazine and Wygston's House seem to be perfectly usable buildings that have just been abandoned since they closed as museums.
The courteous guide did her best to answer the visitors' inquiries, but she explained that, essentially, the council had no plans to do anything with any of them.
Sir Peter Soulsby and his team have already done much to improve how the city's heritage is viewed.
But long-term planning is needed to ensure these buildings are used to their full potential.
If there is no money to restore or develop them now, there should at least be a plan for their future.
While the discovery of Richard III and the creation of the visitor centre are great news for the city, we should not forget the other tangible traces of what the mayor has termed "the story of Leicester".
Each of these buildings deserves a better fate than just to be boarded up and only revealed for a couple of Sundays in summer.
Visitors flocking to the city in the wake of the discovery of the last Plantagenet will see these buildings and wonder what they are (since there are few if any display panels) and why nothing is done with them.
Each of these buildings is listed and will have to be maintained, so putting them to some use or other and encouraging people to visit them would help recover these costs, improve tourism and people's pride in the city.
Rather than viewing such buildings as an irritating drain on resources, as was the case with previous administrations which chose to mothball them, the council needs to utilise these relics as assets in the fight to transform the way people perceive the city.
Ian Marshman, Leicester. Reported by This is 1 day ago.