Former newsreader Selina Scott joins campaign to save car park

The former newsreader, who lives near Easingwold, is backing the fight against plans to develop Malton’s Wentworth Street car park after Ryedale District Council agreed to sell-off the land.

Ms Scott has questioned the district council’s decision to sell the town centre site to raise capital when it already has £8m in its reserves.

She said: “Another supermarket in Malton could have a devastating effect on its smaller traders. Large supermarkets in a small market town such as Malton will kill off the present shops by selling a wide range of goods, including meat and clothing. But an enterprise based on selling Ryedale and Hambleton area produced food could have the opposite effect. We could hold the trend on what is happening nationally in our market towns. It would benefit many local businesses especially farming.”

Council leader Keith Knaggs said the authority had received an application from the Fitzwilliam Estate for the livestock market site and expected applications from Holbeck Land, which plans to buy the Wentworth Street site. “We have also received applications from Simon Developments for a much larger supermarket in the Pasture Lane area,” he said. “The timing of these will be decided by the applicants not the planning authority. I am confident they will be decided in accordance with planning law and on the basis of councillors’ views as to what’s best for Malton and Ryedale.”