LETTERS: New thinking maybe required on market

It was always Fitzwilliam Malton Estate’s intention, when the livestock market relocated, to undertake a full redevelopment of Malton’s livestock market.

Changed market conditions have caused the major food retailers, who had shown active interest in a food hall store, to withdraw.

While there is still some interest from a high quality food store to serve Malton and Norton, in response to the change in the market, new thinking may be required.

The Estate is reviewing other options for this two-acre site. The aim remains for a redevelopment to support rejuvenation of the town.

Credible proposals would be subject to community consultation and the local planning process in due course.

In the short term, there would seem to be merit in arranging for more of the site to be made available for much-needed car park spaces as the town centre becomes busier.

R Bushell, Estate manager

Taking issue

I WOULD like to take issue with the letter from Bob Batty of RAAP for a number of reasons.

Protest camps are not “by their nature” inhabited by non-locals.

I made the effort to converse with the camp-dwellers and some were certainly from Ryedale. Some locals from Kirby Misperton itself and nearby villages were regular visitors and supported their presence.

Protesters from outside the area should not be automatically derided as “invading” our community.

You and I can protest wherever and whenever we want within the law, one reason we should be proud of our country.

Whatever happens in Kirby Misperton could have consequences for the whole country, a point the anti-fracking members of RAAP are surely aware of, hence the presence of some protesters from other areas.

Someone who protests against one cause, be it fracking, HS2 or whatever is equally entitled to object to other matters.

Or is RAAP seriously suggesting that the right to protest should be rationed?

Why an organisation should be formed to protest against law-breaking defeats me. When I last looked, we had a police force and a judiciary.

Peter Winter, Kirby Misperton

I supported camp

HOT weather can do funny things to the brain.

Bob Batty (Gazette, June 27) might benefit from a cooling swim in the River Rye before filling your columns with his “clarification” that RAAP (Ryedale Against Antisocial Protesters) is simply a mixed bag of people with wildly differing views on fracking - but who are opposed to criminal activity. On that basis, the entire population of the UK could sign up.

Protests and protection camps are always ugly to look at. The planning permission to approve a trial frack at Kirby Misperton was reliant on National Policy Guidance not our own local framework.

The KM8 well was the first to benefit from this new regime so of course it attracted protest from those outside the area who were fearful of what this national policy would do to their own community.

I live three miles from the proposed fracking site. I supported the protection camp and helped clear it up at the end.

It was not an “illegal” camp and was invaluable in drawing media attention to the impact of a sustained roll-out programme of fracking wells.

Obviously if you live locally, you have no need to camp in a field.

I was very grateful for the support and solidarity of those who travelled for a few days to our region.

In the main, the daily protests at the site entrance were peopled by those who lived locally and who could spare the time.

And as this particular phase

ended in April, it is important to remember that a seriously indebted company - registered abroad and with directors not domiciled in this country - failed a test of “financial resilience” and was denied the opportunity to do the very thing for which it had originally been granted permission.

The protests objected to the arrival of equipment which should never have been there in the first place.

Philip Tate, Butterwick

Thanks for care

OUR nana, mum and wife Eileen McGinty recently received palliative care on the Fitzwilliam Ward at Malton Hospital.

Though it was a heart-breaking situation, I can’t begin to describe the comfort that it brought our family – and Nana too, I am sure of it – for her to be treated with such respect, dignity and love throughout her stay.

It felt as though she were always surrounded by her extended family, whether we were there or not, and the whole team truly went above and beyond to help to make a horrible situation a little bit less horrible.

How lucky we are in Malton to have such an outstanding facility to care for our loved ones.

From the bottom of our hearts – thank you.

The McGinty and Flynn families, Norton