RYEDALE District Council has agreed to spend £50,000 on a report looking into a business case for a relocated Malton livestock market at Eden Camp.

Discussions on the plans have been ongoing for a number of months - though the relocation of the livestock market, which currently lies in central Malton, has been mooted for decades. At a meeting of full council on Thursday, Cllr Luke Ives said that for the council to get involved there needs to be “direct and indirect benefits from the investment” and it needs to be done in a way that “protects the taxpayers’ purse”.

He said: “Whenever you spend taxpayers’ money every penny piece needs to be spent wisely and well. Whenever you make an investment you need to make sure you get a return on that.”

But he said the principal of rescuing the market was sound. “If you look at the value that’s been added by the livestock market over the many decades it’s been around it’s huge,” he said.

“However we all appreciate that time change. If it’s to have a future we actively have to move forward.

“It’s exciting but let’s not get our hopes up - let’s get the facts, let’s get the figures and let’s make a decision.”

Cllr Lindsay Burr said the market was important for the whole area. “It’s part of Ryedale, not just part of Malton,” she said.

There was a dissenting voice in Cllr Robert Wainwright, who said he used the livestock market in the 1970s and 1980s but that demand was falling for the facility, and similar markets had closed in Helmsley, Pickering and Kirkbymoorside.

“I will not support this recommendation,” he said.

Cllr John Clark tabled a successful amendment calling for an abattoir on the same site to also be considered as part of the business case. He said that to make Malton a “food capital of the north”, the entire food processing chain had to take place here.

“You can’t have locally raised animals going to Wales to be slaughtered and then coming back here as local food. We want to keep down the food miles and reduce the distance that live animals travel,” he said.

Councillors voted to take the report forward with 25 votes for, two against and one abstention.