Residents march in protest at plans to build supermarket in council car park

Ryedale District Council 
wants to sell the car park, 
however the Fitzwilliam (Malton) Estate also wants to build a retail complex on the site of the Malton livestock market, which is planned to move to an out of town site.

The authority is holding a special planning meeting, due to be held later this month to decide the car park scheme.

Coun Paul Andrews, who has been leading the campaign against the council scheme, said: “We don’t want another supermarket – we want to see the cattle market site developed because that would be a great asset to Malton.”

He along with Malton’s Town Mayor, Coun Joan Lawrence, television presenter Selina Scott, and council members, Edward Legard and Elizabeth Shields spoke at a rally in Malton Market Place at the end of the march, urging residents to support the opposition to the car park supermarket scheme.

Around 150 residents took part in Saturday’s march.

Coun Lawrence told the rally: “With the prospect of 1,500 new homes going to be built in the Malton and Norton area in the next few years, the need for the car park is going to become crucial.”

But the leader of Ryedale District Council, Coun Linda Cowling, said a supermarket would generate more footfall in Malton, attract increased numbers of shoppers which in turn would benefit existing traders.

Chiefs at GMI Holbeck have previously argued that their development would benefit Malton and Norton by attracting shoppers from all over Ryedale. They say it would offer easy links to Malton’s town centre shops and the opportunity for shoppers to buy cheaper petrol.

Meanwhile, Fitzwilliam Estate is to unveil plans on Saturday at premises in the Market Place, to build 500 homes on the outskirts of Malton, in Castle Howard Road. One of those master-minding the scheme is Leon Krier, who developed the Prince of Wales’ experimental new town, Poundbury in Dorset.

Tobias Burckhardt, the estate’s surveyor, said: “This will be an exciting development for Malton. The plans are still at an early stage but we want the public to see our exhibition on Saturday to put forward their views.”