Perhaps I can add some background to the June 10 article on Askham Bryan’s proposed use of the centre at Pickering.

The centre was built some 50 years ago to help train young people of both sexes to work in agriculture.

The site and the buildings were provided by the North Riding County Council and both were paid for by the ratepayers of North Yorkshire. The college at Askham Bryan, then run jointly by the North, East and West Ridings, was asked to provide teaching staff at this and the other centres at Bedale and Thirsk.

Now that the centre is no longer to be used for its original purpose, it might be thought reasonable for it to be handed back to representatives of those who paid for it: the North Yorkshire County Council, the North Riding’s successor.

Unfortunately, successive governments, Conservative and Labour alike, have been energetic in handing over to institutions not accountable to the public, without payment or proper safeguards, property that had been previously owned and paid for by local authorities. To put it bluntly: a few years ago, the centre at Pickering was confiscated and there appears to be nothing anyone can now do about it.

Sir Peter Newsam, Thornton-le-Dale