TWO schemes to bring extra supermarket space to Malton and Norton have been given the go-ahead, bringing with them new jobs and a cash injection for crucial road improvements.

As well as getting a new Lidl store in Norton and a major extension to Morrisons’ Malton store, the long-awaited multi-million pound Brambling Fields junctions on the A64 are to get nearly £450,000 from the companies as a result of negotiations with the retailers..

Ryedale’s senior planning officer, Paul Simpson, said the funding being would be used towards the A64 project and would take significant traffic and HGVs away from the twin towns, which have been bedevilled by air pollution.

Defra, the Government’s environmental department, had said that taking traffic out of the towns was the only way to improve the pollution which had reached near-danger levels.

David Murphy, development executive for Lidl, told Ryedale District Council’s planning committee that the company had been working with the authority for 18 months to get the right scheme. It had, he added, “overwhelming” public support and would create 25 full and part-time jobs.

He said the new store, together with a car showroom, to be built on the site of the former Robson’s car showroom in Welham Road, could be open by next spring.

However, Coun Lindsay Burr said that while Norton needed to expand and to have more jobs, she was not convinced by the Lidl plan.

“I am very concerned about the traffic in Malton and Norton,” she added.

The Brambling Fields contribution was to be welcomed but she was concerned about the potential impact of the development on existing businesses and on traffic flows.

She said: “The traffic infrastructure in our towns is struggling.”

But leader of the council Coun Keith Knaggs welcomed the scheme, saying it would provide more choice for shoppers and the development would improve a dilapidated site.

He said: “The Lidl scheme will be a step forward toward regenerating Norton.”

Coun Paul Andrews wanted a decision to be deferred for investigations to be made into other development sites, but councillors approved the plan by 10 votes to four.

On the Morrisons scheme, Malton and Norton Business in Action told councillors it would not attract new customers, but merely offer a wider choice to existing ones, and it would affect other businesses.

Coun Burr said the development, an extension to the existing Castlegate store, would “contribute traffic chaos on top of chaos,” and added: “Our towns are being choked to death.”

Coun Andrews feared small shops would suffer as a result of the development, which would have an impact on the proposed livestock market development. But Gary Housden, planning manager, said independent assessments had been carried out on the store development schemes. They said they would help reduce the “leakage” of spending from Malton and Norton to York and Scarborough. The committee approved the scheme after he told councillors: “We haven’t got a leg to stand on if we refuse it.”