Livestock market parties urged to 
 join forces

The move follows news that a Government-run public inquiry into the Ryedale Local Plan – the blueprint for development in the district for at least the next 15 years – is due to be re-opened next month.

Presentations of schemes drawn up by a group of farmers and another involving auctioneers have been made to members of Malton Town Council, when they spelled out their aspirations for a new market centre to replace the generations-old market in the town centre.

Town mayor Coun Jason Fitzgerald-Smith said: “It is vital that Malton has a thriving livestock market not only for the farming community but for the benefit of the economy of the whole town.

“As a council we wanted to facilitate discussions on the future of the market.”

Coun Fitzgerald-Smith said time was of the essence, with the lease on the existing market from the Fitzwilliam Estate due to end officially in October.

“We want to see the pieces of the jigsaw coming together,” he added.

The Government’s planning inspector who held the previous inquiry into the Ryedale Plan will re-open the hearing in a three-day session at Ryedale House starting on May 22.

“We are urging all parties in the livestock market issue to find a single resolution,” he said.

“The council wants to see that become a reality following the very helpful presentations we had from the group.”

In February plans to build a new £1.5m livestock market on the outskirts of Malton to replace the town’s generations-old market were set out by farmers.

John Hicks and Peter Stark outlined their hopes at a meeting called by Malton Town Council saying their aim was to re-locate the market to a site in Pickering Road which would take over from the existing livestock market before the lease expires in October.

Mr Hicks said he had been encouraged by the response from the farming community in Ryedale to promote the idea of having a market run by a co-operative.

Approaches had been made to the operators of a similar market at Penrith in Cumbria which had proved a success since it was established a decade ago and in the past year had made a profit of £300,000.