I write this letter regarding Ryedale District Council’s Ryedale plan, which is having devastating effects on Scagglethorpe.

Under this plan, building in the village is limited to infill, basically this means villagers selling off bits of their gardens for housebuilding, shoe-horning houses onto plots which look only big enough for a single garage.

However, these infill areas have now nearly all been built on and the village needs to expand outside the present planning boundaries in order to increase housing and its population.

In the 1960s, the village had just over 250 electors, today 178 and it keeps falling. The parish council is keen to see the village grow. Last year, we completed the village plan and this showed very clearly that three-quarters of the village were retired or about to retire, villagers of working age are very much in the minority.

I often read in this newspaper about people objecting to building houses in their villages. We are a village that would welcome a small-scale housing estate, but of course Ryedale District Council’s policy won’t allow this.

With such an ageing number of people in the village, we have the problem of trying to get people to join in with activities or getting people to join village committees is a very big problem.

At present there is a vacancy on the parish council that no one wants to fill and in the winter months you never see anyone in the village.

This is why its own parish council calls it the village of the dead. When I see in the property pages at houses, for sale in Scagglethorpe it usually says a much sought-after village, I always smile at this.

Paul Douthwaite, clerk of Scagglethorpe Parish Council