Many Malton citizens would be puzzled, if not dismayed, at the council's decision to grant planning consent for more supermarket space in the two towns.

Lidl is building a new 10,000 sq ft store on the site of the car wash just over the level crossing in Norton, and Morrisons is adding an 8,000 sq ft extension to its current premises.

For me, it was not the decision itself that offends, but the manner of taking it. The planning consents were given because the officers and presumably most councillors felt they had no valid reason for refusal, which is a peculiarly negative way of managing planning policy.

Somehow, we have got be less reactive to applications and more proactive with our strategy.

We can all sympathise with the difficulties of trying to get some cohesion out of a large body of committed but independent elected members, but it has to be addressed.

We cannot go on giving consent for major developments purely because there are no grounds for refusal.

I am sure everyone agrees this should be a common objective, but there is more urgency than ever to see its implementation through.

Towards this end, a year ago I joined with all the other key stakeholders and landowners in Malton to form Malton Revitalization Group, and we like to think we are there to assist with the wider vision for the town’s future..

Our view would be that supermarket applications should not be considered in isolation but as part of an overall retail strategy, where all potential sites are put in the melting pot.

We further believe that this holistic approach should be extended to the windfall £4 million for Highways improvements offered by the county council.

Currently Ryedale council wants to allocate a large proportion of this money to improving the junction at Brambling Fields, but the benefits of a new two-way junction at Broughton Road on to the A64 would be far greater. A Broughton Road junction would give the opportunity to create a splendid new access to the town opening up commercial and residential development which will have direct links to the A64 rather than clogging up our town centre.

I think we should ask the council to reconsider and to divert money into the Broughton road project for a greater vision of Malton.

EID row hots up

When January 1, 2010, arrives, I honestly don’t know where we are going to be with sheep EID. The worst of all scenarios is developing at the minute, in which Scotland, Wales and England are each developing their own strategy for dealing with this ludicrous and damaging directive from the EC.

The Welsh Assembly is putting three options to its farming industry and the Scottish Government is investigating other ways of dealing with lambs under 12 months of age.

Meanwhile the English Defra has no idea where it is going as the National Sheep Association has now rejected the proposed slaughter derogation.

To add to the shambles, the Welsh NFU has branded EID as “impractical, unworkable, and too expensive”.

If you get the opportunity to make your views known, please do so. Time is running out.

More warnings

Despite the temporary blip, there are still forecasts of a hot summer ahead and the JAB Campaign is seriously worried about the lack of vaccination by farmers.

Even this early in the season, there have been two new cases of the virus in the west of France last week, despite a widespread vaccination programme in the region.

We are not immune just because we are British and those that haven’t jabbed should take advantage of the reduced price vaccine.