I JUST thought the residents of Malton and Norton would like to know how special Commercial Street is.

We residents received a letter to say the street was going to have the gullies and drains cleaned by Ryedale District Council and the highways department. I bet you are all thinking, “What is so special about that?”. Well, we received these letters on Thursday, April 9, informing car owners of what was happening, giving people a chance to sort out where to park our vehicles for April 12.

I thought there was a typo on the letter because it was not giving us much notice, so I phoned the woman who had signed the letter.

I phoned Ryedale District Council office, but the woman was on holiday. I spoke to a second-in-command, but he didn’t know anything about it.

Next stop, was someone higher up. I asked when did Ryedale District Council and the Highways department had the meeting to discuss this? Was it April 8, because the letter gave us very short notice. There were skips on the road and utilities digging in Commercial Street, so when was the meeting to decide when it would happen?

I suggested that they look in the minutes from the meeting. The person I spoke to also suggested residents parked in Lidl’s car park, but isn’t that private land? But then the person I spoke to was near the top of the ladder, so we should be okay.

I was then told she would contact me to tell me when the meeting was held, but a couple of hours later she phoned and said she didn’t know when the meeting was and that I should contact the highways department about it. Odd, because it was Ryedale council organising it.

So to cut a long story short, we have meetings taking place with no minutes, letters going out at very short notice, a council staff member who thinks we can park anywhere, even on private land, and if there’s a problem – pass the buck.

What a shambles, lunatics and asylum spring to mind.

Mark Webster, Norton