The decision to sell Wentworth Street car park has led to an outpouring of opinion, some of which is published here.

J David Wright, of Westgate, Old Malton, wrote:
I WAS fortunate enough last Thursday to attend the Ryedale District Council meeting at which the Wentworth Street car park issue was on the agenda. I say “fortunate” not only because I had a seat but also because I experienced at first-hand the quality of our legislative assembly and representatives, (that isn’t what some of the public were calling them three days ago).

From the very start of the meeting (I put to one side the way many public had to stand in corridors or lie on the floor) the question arose: with all the monies paid out to refurbish the council chambers, who signed off on the deal to purchase the totally ineffective sound system, and how much did it cost us? Time after time after time public complaints were made that it was impossible to hear what was being said by councillors.

The meeting took its dreary course; we, the public, assumed that some sort of progress was being made, though for the first two hours it seemed to me that only a verbal tennis match was being conducted, often involving the incessantly chattering Coun Clark trying to score a) points off his opponents, b) points off the chairman and c) points with the press reporters. Coun Clark’s few well-made arguments were drowned (for me) by his repetitive “I feel an amendment coming on” remarks. Eventually, when for many of us it was just about cocoa and lights-out time, our leader, Coun Keith Knaggs bleated why Wentworth Street car park had to be sold: apparently, the whole question was first raised 36 years ago and it’s now time to be decided upon. How about that for a convincing, reasoned and logical rationale? (It says more to me about the quality of the leader than about the arguments for and against the sale).

Coun Keal (hand in hand with the Conservatives) at least had the wit not to follow such a pathetic path and tried to convince us that with the monies coming from the sale, the Milton Rooms could have their £8 million refit and Malton town could be smartened up. I admire the Milton Rooms as much as the next philistine, but at £8 million, my view is to let it gracefully slide into oblivion.

We were told that the town cannot afford to wait for the outcome of the Local Development Framework and Coun Keal, sounding like Sir Humphrey in ‘Yes Minister’, enthused that we need to have a “super, modern, high-end supermarket” that will bring in people from far and wide. Oh, and Wentworth Street car park has to be sold today because – why? – because it CAN be sold today. No-one pointed out that an asset such as the car park is an appreciating one and might be worth far more in the next few years. I and others fail to see the sense in the argument that more people will come to Malton if we get yet another supermarket. If the council wants a higher footfall here, then try to persuade Betty’s to locate in Malton; if the evidence from other Betty’s towns is anything to go by, we would be swamped with visitors 24/7.

They say a week is a long time in politics, but somehow I don’t think by next May the voters of Ryedale will have forgotten the way their particular councillor acted.


‘Decision is not final - we should still fight’

Coun Paul Andrews wrote:
THE decision to put Wentworth Street Car Park up for sale by tender to seven supermarket operators (or their agents) is most disappointing.

This decision is not final. The tenders have to go through a process of examination and approval, and the successful tenderer will have to obtain planning consent. Every effort should be made to strenuously resist this project at every stage.

The only reason given for the sale was that it is in the vested financial interest of the council – to obtain funds which it doesn’t need at the moment. At the meeting, councillors argued that their existing £6-8 million capital reserves were fully committed. They have been saying this since 1996, but very little has been spent. There is no immediate need for new cash for any of these projects and none of them can justify the risk of the wholesale sacrifice of the historic Malton town centre – which is what the sale of the car park to a supermarket amounts to.

At the meeting it was reported that in current market conditions there are very few significant retail developments starting, because finance is extremely hard to find. In other words, the market is at rock bottom – hardly the right time to sell the family silver. We were also told that if we didn’t sell now, there would be a risk of the council’s “commercial interest going away”. It is difficult to see how there would not be more interest when the market is more buoyant. The council rejected an amendment, which I proposed, requesting the decision to be postponed until after the outcome of the Local Development Framework is known. However, they could not wait, presumably because they know very well that the government inspector appointed to examine the LDF is quite likely to find that there is no need for another supermarket, or that if there is, there are better sites than Wentworth Street car park. The sale would have more credibility if the council was prepared to invest the sale proceeds in a new motorway intersection between Broughton Road and the A64. So I proposed another amendment to the effect that the decision should be postponed until after a highway strategy for Malton is in place. My amendment was rejected: Ryedale’s ruling clique could not care less about the impact of supermarket traffic on the amenities of Malton residents.

Members of Malton and Norton Business in Action wrote:
WE, together with 50 or more Ryedale residents, crowded the Ryedale council chamber last Thursday expecting a lively debate about one of the most important decisions ever put before Ryedale District Council.

How disappointed we were. With one notable exception, the Conservative members appeared to sit on their hands all night waiting to be told when to vote. It seemed to us that they may have had no idea about the implications of the resolution being put.

The whole evening was a fiasco supposedly to represent a meaningful justification for the approval of the sale of Community House, its car park and other land. If we had not been there we would not have believed it.

A Hall, D Townsend, E rooksbank, I Hall, J Fitzgerald Smith, M Chalk, M Wright, P Farndale, P Elwess, P Foxton, S Shaw