The Cattlle Market should not be allowed to hold the town to ransom 27th March 2013

I support Ryedale’s policy of retaining a cattle market in or near Malton. I also support the Fitzwilliam estate’s proposals for the Cattle Market area.

Now that the Estate has planning permission for the Cattle Market, there is nothing  the Council can do to stop the lease coming to an end. The Cattle Market therefore has to move.

I am elected to represent all Malton residents and businesses. This includes the residents of Old Malton, as well as the businesses related to the Cattle Market.

I have no problem with a cattle market of about 10 acres by the Old Malton roundabout. However, recent correspondence from the Fitzwilliam Trust Corporation’s makes it clear that there is a price to pay. They propose to make land available to the auctioneers, but the price for this is not to be paid by the auctioneers or the farmers: it is to be paid by the community. The price tag is the allocation of 180 acres for “mixed development”. The land to be allocated is around Eden Camp and on the other side of the Pickering Road, and also includes the Showfield and land at Westgate Old Malton.  At a rate of 13 houses to the acre, this would accommodate 2,340 new houses or the equivalent amount of hard surfaced industrial development  or a mix of both.

This raises a number of issues, including highways, flooding, ribbon development along the Pickering Road, and the issue of concentrating so much development in one area, instead of dispersing it over a wider area. Old Malton residents are particularly concerned because the whole of this area is understood to drain into the culvert at Lascelles Lane, which is the main reason for floods at Old Malton.  I cannot therefore support this proposal: the price to the community is too high, and neither the Trust nor the auctioneers should be allowed to hold the town to ransom.

One therefore has to consider other sites and other proposals.

The only other proposal on the table is the John Hicks proposal. This is further up the Pickering Road, and the land is understood to be given free of charge, and does not depend on “enabling development” or holding the community to ransom. I believe this proposal should be given serious consideration.

I would urge the auctioneers and the Hicks group to work together on this site and produce positive proposals very quickly – otherwise there is a real risk that Malton will lose its Cattle Market altogether in October.