Shops, jobs and homes to kick-start Malton (From Gazette & Herald)

Shops, jobs and homes to kick-start Malton

10:32am Wednesday 1st April 2009

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POLICIES aimed at reviving Malton’s ailing economy are being drawn up in what is being described as the biggest shake-up the historic market town has seen in living memory.

The action plan was unveiled at Ryedale House by Coun Keith Knaggs, council leader and Conservative group leader, Coun Howard Keal, leader of the Liberal Democrats group at Ryedale, Coun Robert Wainwright, who leads the Independent members, and Janet Waggott, district council chief executive.

“Malton Revitalised” envisages a catalogue of opportunities which could be taken to regenerate the town centre with the aim of giving new life to its shops and other businesses, and creating new jobs. The town is currently losing £90 million in spending by local people who are travelling elsewhere to shop.

It is hoped it will be adopted as part of the Local Development Framework which will shape the district’s future.

And it comes hot on the heels of a recent presentation by consultants for the Fitzwilliam Estate that Malton needs to “wake up to opportunities” to boost its economy and save jobs.

Top marketing consultant Ian Shepherd said there was a need for businesses and local authorities to work together to stage events and improve the Saturday and farmers’ markets to attract more shoppers and visitors.

Ms Waggott said: “This plan is about Malton in the 21st century. We care about Malton but we do need to enhance the town’s appeal by making it more vibrant. We want to make Malton the capital of Ryedale.”

The town’s rating in the national retail league table has slumped from 741st place in 2004 to 1,095th in the past year and the decline is continuing.

Key features of the new blueprint are likely to be:

* a supermarket on part of the Wentworth Street car park

* new retailing

* policies to create new better-paid jobs

* affordable housing

* leisure facilities

* relocation of the livestock market to Showfield Lane

* renewing Malton’s Victorian sewerage system

* building a roundabout at the Brambling Fields end of the Malton bypass to take much of the heavy traffic away from Malton and Norton’s centres

“We have to halt the decline,” she said emphatically.

Ms Waggott is urging landowners to come forward with ideas and sites where new developments could take place.

And more development could spell big benefits for Ryedale’s 50,000 residents through financial gains going to Ryedale District Council.

Ms Waggott said: “We have a duty to use land in the district effectively and to make it work as hard as we can for our population.”

The new policies are to go before the council over the next few months with agreement being reached by October.

Coun Knaggs said: “We have negative voices being allowed to dominate the debate on Malton’s future. Yet we have had very positive responses.”

Enlarging the town centre by linking the Market Place with the Showfield and relocating the livestock market are seen as priorities.

Coun Keal said there was a need to increase the number of pedestrians – shoppers and visitors – in Malton’s centre. He believed that some pedestrianisation of Malton was not only desirable but inevitable.

“I believe we have a great opportunity here for Malton. Developments will be good for the economy of the whole area and its people.”

A survey among local residents revealed that 37 per cent of those responding want Malton to have more high street name shops and 15 per cent say it needs more clothes shops.

Partners with Ryedale District Council in the ambitious schemes are North Yorkshire County Council, Fitzwilliam Estate, Yorkshire Forward and Malton Town Council.

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