I WOULD refer to the Council Solicitor’s letter published in your issue of September 8, and would like to correct it.

Once again we see a senior council officer taking a view on a matter of serious political controversy.

When will Ryedale’s senior officers decide to keep out of politics?

Mr Winship states that Ryedale did have regard to public opinion when it decided to put Wentworth Street car park up for sale, and refers to a consultation at the end of August 2008.

I would remind Mr Winship that this was not a true consultation because the public was only consulted on one option – the council’s.

Some £50,000 of council tax was spent on this promotion to get the council the answer it wanted. Even so, in spite of this expense, only 47 per cent of the 500 or so of the people who actually gave their written views agreed with the council: 43 per cent disagreed.

This compares with more than 2,000 signatures in a petition opposing the sale, which was handed in at the meeting of July 29 this year.

Referring again to the so-called August 2008 “consultation”, in September 2008 the council received a consultants’ report, again paid for out of our money, which did compare a number of sites. This report condemned the idea of a supermarket on Wentworth Street Car Park in these words: “We do not consider that it represents a short-term development opportunity”. The same report went on to recommend the Fitzwilliam Estate’s proposals for the cattle market.

This document was deliberately withheld from most councillors, including ward councillors, until March 2009.

It is correct that the Secretary of State has little power to stop the sale. However, as Mr Winship knows perfectly well, the Secretary of State does have the power to call in the planning application which will have to be made, and order a public inquiry. Close public scrutiny of this kind is the very last thing Ryedale wants. That is the reason for the rush to get the sale agreed and planning permission granted before they can be held to account during the inquiry into the LDF. What the Town Council is asking for is a public inquiry now.

COUN PAUL ANDREWS, Malton Ward.

* LIKE all bureaucrats called upon by their political masters to defend the indefensible, Anthony Winship seems to discuss the issues at hand while avoiding the main point entirely.

It is true, of course, that Ryedale District Council held well-attended consultation events – but at none of these was the sale of Wentworth Street car park to a major supermarket proposed. What was presented was evidence that the arrival of a smaller scale, higherend supermarket located immediately adjacent to the town centre might enhance the retail sector of the town centre as a whole.

The example given was Beverley, where a small Marks & Spencer right in the heart of the town had seemed to achieve this result. This model describes the Fitzwilliam Estate proposal to redevelop the cattle market – it does not describe the council’s own proposal to sell the Wentworth Street car park to a major, highest-bidding supermarket.

The Beverley model suggests that people will walk to both supermarket and town centre due to their proximity. The reality for Wentworth Street, somewhat removed from the town centre, is that the majority of customers will drive from within Malton and from surrounding villages to the supermarket, will shop and will drive away again, clogging the approach roads.

The district council is looking to sell a prime site at the lowest ebb of the property market and to incur deductions from the proceeds of this sale to facilitate road improvements and (perhaps) free parking over and above that necessary for the customers of the supermarket in order to sweeten the deal.

They are doing this before the Local Development Plan is complete – which is to say, without examination of the wider impact of the sale – and in direct contradiction of the advice of consultants whose views on the matter they commissioned.

NIGEL COPSEY, Malton.

* THE council’s decision to sell Wentworth Street car park in order to facilitate “more retail opportunities for Malton” is an utter insult to the existing retailers, townsfolk and people of the surrounding local villages.

Supermarkets, by sheer definition, control the market by forcing the competition into a corner until it simply cannot compete any more.

The spineless actions of the council are going to destroy everything that makes this town unique, and once this car park is sold we will see the heart and soul of our town die. I’m only 22 years old, and in that short space of time I have seen many businesses both flourish and fail in this town. I fear that for many we will be seeing a lot more of the latter if we do not stand up and make our voices heard.

The council should be ashamed.

ERIC BOWIE, Malton.