HOWARD KEAL says that introducing lower car park charges would have been a bad deal for taxpayers. He should recall that there was a pilot scheme to see if lowering the charges would increase use and this would increase revenue.

The pilot scheme did not last long enough, and was never properly evaluated. Several years later the council’s scrutiny committee carried out an investigation and concluded that it was unclear whether the pilot scheme had been a success or a failure.

This report was shelved, because the real reason for keeping charges in Wentworth Street car park was that other councillors from other wards were not prepared to allow Malton car parking rates to be different from theirs. The car parks in their wards could stand the additional charges, because they were in tourist areas, whereas Malton is not.

So, by making one charge fit all, they effectively priced Wentworth Street out of the market. It is councillors from the same wards who want to sell Wentworth Street car park. They do not care less about Malton or Norton. The long-term future of our towns does not worry them. It does not matter to them whether a new superstore would destroy the town and its businesses or not. They know perfectly well that superstores destroy more jobs than they create.

All these councillors care about is the money from the sale, which could be used for projects in their wards – they have no intention of spending much of it in Malton or Norton. In one sense only, Howard is right: this is all about money. At the end of the day that is the only argument which has any weight, but it is short term and not a material planning consideration, and it is not in the long-term interests of Malton and Norton nor of the district as a whole.

Councillor Paul Andrews, Malton ward