Dear Philippa,

 

A brief hiatus in the feverish quest for votes was provided four days ago by the arrival of my granddaughter, Imogen. Her older brother Archie, four, has been calling her Tilly-Lily ever since he was informed that she was in the pipe-line, but no-one seems to know why. Even more mysterious is his decision at the weekend to stop calling me grandad and instead to address me as Smelly Bottom. Anyway, I made the 600 mile round trip to view the new child, as you do. Mercifully, she slept throughout my entire visit.

 

Back to the election. Easily the most contentious issue on the doorsteps is the widely hated sale of the Wentworth Street car park, allegedly for a cool five million, with plans to build on the site a large superstore, widely believed to be a Sainsbury’s. I hear that another candidate is putting it about that I am in favour of this; a currently serving councillor, who voted in favour, is known to be one of my friends and from this, I suppose, a faulty deduction has been made by someone who can have little insight into the nature of friendship.

 

There are two issues here: the sale of the car park, and the introduction of a superstore. I am opposed to both. I am uneasy, to put it mildly, to see the Council trouser five million; once they get their unreliable fingers on this sort of booty it would tempt them away from their determination to find the economies and efficiencies required of them in these difficult times. Further, it is likely that the population of the town will increase significantly in the coming decade or so, which will increase the demand for car parking spaces; the loss of Wentworth Street would mean that there would be no all-day parking in Malton. Except, of course, the hundred or so spots at the Council offices; these are free, but sadly available only to Council officers and employees. Other workers in the town will have to follow the Council’s pious exhortations to cycle (in the interests averting global warming and combating obesity, of course); it would be gratifying to see the Council providing leadership here.

 

As to the superstore idea – frankly it’s a mess. Until recently we had two: a Morrison’s and a Netto. In the past year the Council has given permission to Morrison’s to almost double in size, and planning consent to the building of two further low-ticket stores. If the ”Sainsbury’s” goes ahead we shall have five supermarkets, serving a total population of less than fifteen thousand. The incoherent dishing out of planning permission to supermarket chains, taking no evident account of the impact of mounting fleets of heavy goods vehicles supplying their outlets, strains credulity. 

 

The beneficial effects claimed for the arrival of a superstore are based on comparisons with three other towns that seem to me to bear little weight – Wetherby, Beverley and Northallerton. These are prosperous towns that were targeted by retail giants precisely because of their prosperity. Beverley, it is said, is where Hull keeps its money; Wetherby is in the so-called Golden Triangle where property is as expensive as it gets in the North, and Northallerton is where large numbers of high-end employers are located. These advantages did not follow superstores, rather the other way round. Malton is an agricultural centre with relatively low wage opportunities. The comparisons are bogus. A supermarket to compete with Morrison’s will be needed, and it will come, but not yet. I suspect that if a valuable and saleable public asset did not exist in the town the Council would not be running around looking for some way to find a site to build a superstore. This is about the five million. Local people have not forgotten the attempt to sell the police station years ago releasing valuable land for a developer who would build a new nick – on Wentworth Street car park!

 

Anyway, none of this is of interest to Tilly-Lily whose only concerns are food, sleep and how soon will Smelly Bottom show up again with another nifty outfit for a nifty little girl. 

 

Best wishes,

 

Howard