PLANS for a leisure centre at Thornton-le-Dale have been rejected by the North York Moors National Park planning committee.

The committee has agreed, however, to provide a car park in a walled garden adjoining the hall in the village. The proposed centre, which was to have included a children’s farm, nature trail and car park, was turned down because of the extra people and vehicles it would have brought into the village.

The committee also felt there was no overriding need for such facilities, and was satisfied that appropriate access for vehicles could not have been provided.

The owner of the land on which the committee wants to make a car park is now being asked if she is prepared to sell it to the county council. There would be a 75 per cent Government grant towards the car park, and the county council is asking Pickering Rural Council if it would share the rest of the cost.

From the Malton Gazette & Herald this week in 1973

 

STAFF at Pickering natural gas processing plant have been told their jobs are safe for at least another year.

Home Oil of Canada Ltd employs 34 people at the plant, which treats gas from the Lockton natural gas field on the North York Moors.

Output from the field, jointly owned by Home Oil and Gas Council (Exploration) Ltd, has not come up to expectation. Announcing the decision, Home Oil said the situation “would be reviewed in the light of further experience”.

Production of gas from the Lockton field started in May 1971. After a fall-off in pressure, Lockton was temporarily closed while tests were made to decide its future.

From the Malton Gazette & Herald this week in 1973

 

BRITISH beef is finally coming back on the menu at some North Yorkshire schools, four years after being dropped at the height of the BSE scare.

Scores of schools in Ryedale are to be asked by catering contractor Castle View Services if they would like to be supplied again with beef.

Terrington School, near Malton, has already indicated it would like British beef to be served again in its dinners.

Conservative MEP Robert Goodwill, whose three children attend the school, was jubilant that they could eat beef again. “I was horrified when I discovered that they were not being served British beef,” he said.

Headteacher Jenny Belson said a clear majority of parents wanted beef on the menu and the school was happy for it to be served.

Mr Goodwill, who conducted a survey of 387 schools in North Yorkshire and York, thanked teachers, governors and parents who responded by bringing pressure to bear on the contractors.

North Yorkshire County Council lifted its temporary ban on beef in October 1996 after an extensive survey of parents’ views. But it left open the option for individual schools to keep the ban if wanted.

From the Yorkshire Gazette this week in 2000

 

A ROOM in a well-known Ryedale pub has been given a new lease of life as a computer training centre.

Computer Training Services (CTS) has set up in a room just off the entrance to Suddabys Crown Hotel, in Wheelgate, Malton.

Tony White, proprietor, offers computer training to a number of groups such as people with special needs, the unemployed and, in Tony’s words, “those petrified of computers”.

It will also be possible to gain nationally-recognised information business technology and computer literacy qualifications.

In the coming months Tony hopes to pioneer a new scheme for those living in remote areas.

For a small deposit, students will be able to take a computer home and receive lessons in computer literacy via email.

From the Yorkshire Gazette this week in 2000