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SAVE OUR CAR PARK - SAVE OUR SHOPS - SAVE OUR TOWN - FROM RYEDALE'S PLANNERS, BY VOTING AGAINST THE  COUNCILLOLRS NAMED BELOW WHO VOTED TO SELL WENTWORTH STREET CAR PARK ON 17TH NOVEMBER 2010:

The councillors who voted to sell the car park are:

In addition VIVIENNE KNAGGS who is standing in PICKERING EAST has already committed herself

to support the sale in a recent letter to the Gazette.

PLEASE DO NOT VOTE FOR ANY OF THE ABOVE IF THEY ARE STANDING FOR RE-ELECTION.

REASONS:

.

Local business people and residents have marched in protest against Ryedale District Council's determination to sell

Malton's main long stay car park, Wentworth Street Car Park. This decision is NOT  a "done deal", because

the sale cannot be completed unless the developer obtains planning permission. The  Council’s

current draft Ryedale Plan gives the “Green Light” for this, but it is not too late to change the

draft plan so as to give the “Red Light” to the proposed superstore development. There are strong

planning arguments which suggest that this is the right thing to do.

To change the plan, we first have to change the political composition of Ryedale District Council. That is why

I would urge all Ryedale voters  to vote AGAINST all Councillors standing for re-election who voted in favour of the sale.

The vote to sell the Car Park was 17 for and 10 against. So we only need to change four councillors to save our towns.

Voters need to show there are very strong feelings about this from a large section of the community, both from Malton

and Norton and from the surrounding area of Ryedale. These strong feelings have already been evident from the 250 or

more people who marched against the sale last year and the 300 or more people who attended the Council meeting of

17th November when the sale was decided.

When talking about this issue, the first comment by most people is: "Where am I expected to park?" Ryedale District

Council has deliberately avoided commissioning an Expert Car Park Strategy Report, as they know it will harm their case

for the sale.

The second point is either: "Are there not enough supermarkets here already?", or "What about traffic  congestion?"

No satisfactory answers have been given to these questions.

If the sale happens, it will have a devastating impact on Malton's town centre shops, particularly its small independent traders.

Malton will lose its historic character and become a clone town.

NOTES

Ryedale District Council has decided to sell Wentworth Street Car Park to a supermarket operator BY

a majority vote of 17 to 10. We only need a change of four to change the Ryedale Plan and stop the sale.

 The only reason Ryedale has given for selling Wentworth Street Car Park is that it is an asset

which can realise money for capital projects. They will sacrifice Malton for a short term gain.

This is an asset stripping exercise which is not in the public interest.

The Council says Wentworth Street Car Park is underused, but this is not so. As with all car parks,use depends on demand,

and demand varies significantly depending on the time of day/week and special events. The Council has consistently charged

heavily in car park fees,but even so on market days and event days the car park can be full - particularly when used 

by farm vehicles of people using the Cattle Market.

There is no need for another supermarket. Malton already has one of the biggest Morrisons stores in the North of England,

as well as smaller outlets run by ASDA and Sainsbury's, and Costcutters. A Lidl has been built and permission

has  been given for a new  Aldi store in Norton.

There are significant transport issues which need to be resolved.

The total population of Malton and Norton is about 12,000, and its catchment area is small, as centres like  York

and Scarborough are not far away. The Council says that competition will ensure that the strongest survive: hardly

encouraging for the independent businesses which can never compete with supermarkets. The result will be closure of many

businesses and there will be a net loss of jobs.

At the same time, Ryedale is granting planning permissions in return for development gain on several large sites in

Malton and Norton outside the towns’ development limits. This will make the traffic congestion which is already bad,

many times worse. This is hardly the planning you would expect to find for such a small country market town.

Ryedale’s political administration know perfectly well that by far the majority of the residents of Malton/Norton

do not want yet another big supermarket in their town. This has been made clear by over 250 residents  - many

of them from outside Malton/Norton, who marched against the sale in July and by over 300 residents who attended

the Council meeting on 17th November which approved the sale (subject to planning).

Most people I have met on the doorstep mistakenly believed there would be direct access to the superstore site from

the A64 – as indeed one might have expected if the Council were to be seen to be acting in the best interests of the

community. However, if the Council did this, there would be no money left from the sale.

Let there be no mistake: Councillor Keith Knaggs, Ryedale’s Council Leader, quashed any

hope of a new motorway intersection between Broughton Road and the A64 at the meeting

of planning committee of 5th April 2011, when he made it absolutely clear that no such

motorway-style road intersection would be built in the foreseeable future.

This means that if the superstore development goes ahead, traffic congestion in Malton/Norton will be many times

worse than it already is. All the Council’s political administration is interested in is money.

Further, it would seem that there is a cynical political strategy of dividing the community instead of uniting it. So farmers

are set against shop-keepers, country is set against town and the rest of Ryedale is set against Malton/Norton which

is expected to have all Ryedale’s worst problems in terms of housing, retail and other matters dumped upon them,

instead of taking only their fair share.

I don’t believe people take kindly to this. Our Ryedale community cannot be split neatly into units and parishes,

because most people have friends, relatives and associates in both town and country. I also believe that the new

superstore, if built, will not have an impact which is limited only to Malton/Norton, but that its impact will damage

local business throughout Ryedale, particularly in Kirkbymoorside and Pickering. Further, I think most Ryedale

residents see Ryedale as a single community where everybody should be treated equally, whether they live in towns or villages.

So please do not vote for the 17 + 1 named above if they are standing for election.

Coucillor Paul Andrews

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