YP Letters: Independent spirit behind Malton's success

From: Coun Paul Andrews, Mayor of Malton.
malton is a market town which is thriving.malton is a market town which is thriving.
malton is a market town which is thriving.

JAYNE Dowle should visit Malton (The Yorkshire Post, December 18). A few years ago, the town defeated the challenge of a new superstore which would have killed our beautiful Georgian town centre, and our small, independent, innovative shops have never looked back. Malton is on the up.

The car parking in Malton centre is free, and there’s more variety than in a supermarket. Where else could you buy lobsters and other exotic shellfish and game most of the year round?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Local produce sold in season by local, independent shops can be much cheaper than food in supermarkets with their policies of central purchasing. We have food festivals, a Dickens festival and the Christmas lights this year are truly fabulous.

Malton has a unique character which attracts visitors from far away.

Living here not a right

From: JG Riseley, Harrogate.

DR John Chisholm (The Yorkshire Post, December 14) urges the release of detained migrants, knowing full well that they would then be liable to disappear or create links making it difficult to deport them.

He sees himself as a defender of fundamental human rights, but living in the UK is not a human right – it is a British one. If the entire human species chose to congregate upon this island, would we really have no moral or legal basis for stopping them?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Are we even detaining these migrants? We are not prevented them from travelling around the rest of the world, only excluding them from the rest of Britain. They are free to leave the centres provided they also leave the UK.

Carrier could be Royal Yacht

From: John Eoin Douglas, Spey Terrace, Edinburgh.

THE recent leak on the new British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is utterly irrelevant to the vessel’s future. While the leakage has sensationally been quoted as 200 litres per hour, that’s only 44 gallons per hour: I’ve bailed more out of a rowing boat (The Yorkshire Post, December 20).

More importantly, the vessel was designed 20 years ago and is clearly not fit for modern warfare, with computers even running an elderly version of Windows for Warships. The aircraft, which will not arrive for several years, will also be built to similarly antiquated designs.

Far better to repurpose the ship as a replacement Royal Yacht. With impending Brexit, this would excel for Royal visits promoting British trade and diplomacy throughout the world. It would certainly give the new generation of Royals something to do that would generally be perceived as useful even by the most ardent Republican.

Faith under pressure

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

From: Edward Grainger, Botany Way, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

HOW I concur with Father McNicholas (The Yorkshire Post, December 15) about the dumbing down of Christmas. Christian faith shouldn’t be reserved just for Christmas.

I am one of two cyclists in Yorkshire and the North East connected each year with the arrangements for a service of remembrance and thanksgiving first held at Coxwold, near Thirsk, in 1927. As each service for cyclists has come and gone, I am under constant pressure to take the Church service out of the day and simply have the several hundred cyclists ride to and from the village hall.

I have always refused. The politically correct should never have their way.

Root cause of Yemen crisis

From: Colin Archer, Leeds.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

AS we begin the annual festival of over-eating, it was heartening to see that the British government is committing extra food aid to the starving population in Yemen (The Yorkshire Post, December 18).

However they are at the same time continuing to authorise the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, thus helping prolong the conflict that is the main cause of the suffering. The UN has called this the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and it is shameful that the UK continues to pour yet more guns and bombs into the region.

Scent of double standards

From: Paul Morley, Ribblesdale Estate, Long Preston, Skipton.

I HAPPENED to be watching the television the other day and saw an advert which showed a group of women watching a handsome young man remove his clothes and spray his body with a male perfume, at which point the women all swooned to the floor.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Can you imagine an advert where the roles were reversed? The liberal left would have an attack of the vapours and the hardline feminists would be bombarding social media.

Homes on High Street

From: David Rhodes, Ripley, Harrogate.

AS a retired architect, I read with interest your article on the FMB report about converting space to ease the housing crisis.

Back in the 1990s a similar government scheme was called Living over the Shop. It was run by Anne Petherick, based in York, and one of the most successful areas was in Harrogate District. At the time I was Head of Conservation and Design at Harrogate.

While agreeing with the concept, I would point out 
that local authorities no longer have the staff or resources they used to have.