1. Car park Charges.

1.1. These will increase by 25% on April 1st. I have done my best to get this increase reduced. I had a total of 9 meetings with RDC officers, and came up with three alternatives, which would have avoided this increase, which I think is not going to be good for business in Malton or Norton. I think I was the only member of the Council who opposed this price hike. My colleague, David Clarkson supported me at Committee, but was on holiday abroad on the day of the Council Meeting.

1.2. The Fitzwilliam Estate produced a document called the “Lockwood Survey 2002”, which, although over two years old, is not outdated. The point is that the car park charges which can be charged in Regional centres like Leeds, without damaging trade, can be a lot higher than the charges that can be charged in sub-regional centres such as York or Scarborough, and these, in their turn, can be much higher than the charges that can be levied in District Centres like Malton. I don’t think the Council members who made the decision understood this, and I fear our charges are being compared with York or Scarborough rather than with places like Selby or Hambleton. I attach a copy of the relevant page of the Lockwood Report which makes this point.

2. Malton and Norton Town Centre Initiative.

2.1. The £5,000 grant which the Community Services Committee had supported was turned down by P&R and Full Council.

3. The Dry Sports Centre

3.1. The Council chose the Malton School site for this project. As I am a school governor, I was deemed to have a “prejudicial interest”, so that I could not attend the debate and vote on this issue. However, as the Town Council knows, I do support the school site. So I circulated the attached e-mail to the Council before the second Council meeting on this subject on 10th March.

4. Fire Station

4.1. I have received letters expressing concern about the proposal to scale down Malton Fire Station by using retained fire fighters at night instead of whole time professional firemen. Does the Town Council have any views about this?

PAUL ANDREWS