I regret coming to your letters page again but as you gave a banner headline to a personal attack, I ask for the right to reply.

The leaders of the Conservative, Lib-Dem and Independent groups on the district council have a simple idea. We (but the words are mine alone) see that Malton has not developed as well as other market towns have developed. We see that it could become a town with an ageing population supported by low-paid jobs in low-growth sectors of the economy.

We see the need to provide Malton and its natural catchment area with a greater variety of shops and stores, with better-quality and better-paid jobs, with better yet affordable homes, with improved leisure facilities, and with infrastructure that has to be paid for by creaming off some development profit. It is a very simple and straightforward idea, yet it is amazing how some people are terrified by it.

That is not a criticism of anything in the past. It is not a revolution. It is not sneaking things through – can there be any topic with which councillors are not more familiar?

It is not “giving the council the most money” because the public’s money would go straight back into much-needed infrastructure of all kinds. We’re not going to get it all from other sources – this week’s refusal to grant-aid town centre improvements is evidence of that.

It is not even focusing on Malton to the exclusion of other parts of Ryedale – see this week’s report on the Helmsley sports complex, to which the district council has made a major contribution. It is something that can be put across without resorting to personal attacks.

The only thing on trial is the ability of councillors to look beyond individual commercial interests to what is best for the people of Ryedale. I trust in the good faith of nearly all my colleagues, including those who disagree with me.

Poor Paul Andrews can’t even get his personal attacks right. I last lived in a city 28 years ago, and the business I work in is not big on a national or even regional scale. It provides an environment in which it is good to have big ideas, to be brave, and to look beyond the confines of how things have always been. May be that is Coun Andrews’ problem.

Keith Knaggs, Leader, Ryedale District Council