I feel I have to respond to Cllr Carpenter’s slightly bizarre reply to my earlier letter about Cllr Conlon’s abuse of his position as Mayor and councillor to promote his personal “20’s Plenty” campaign. My letter was not actually about the campaign itself, which as I said, Cllr Conlan is of course free to conduct as a regular citizen.

Cllr Carpenter says that the council voted to support this campaign in 2022. Not exactly: in fact, they agreed that, in certain places such as outside schools, reducing the limit to 20 MPH was a good idea. That is not the thrust of the Conlon campaign, and does not constitute supporting it. The 2023 decision to hold a public consultation produced just 99 responses with 77 in favour: hardly a ringing endorsement. As far as I know, the proposal has not so far been adopted by Malton Town Council, let alone NYCC, as Cllr Conlon wishes.

I’m curious to know where the idea that the chair can use his casting vote specifically “regarding speed issues” comes from. My objection was that he used his position to support his personal campaign, which seems inappropriate.

Yes, I stood for election in 2015 and was unsuccessful. I’m not sure whether this means that I’m forever disqualified from commenting on council proceedings or councillor’s behaviour, but I doubt it. And I’m sure that all elected councillors “try to do their best”. I just wish they would refrain from using their position to promote personal campaigns.

David Hogg