Sir, – I read with interest your article about Hambleton District Council planning to buy the former Northallerton Prison (D&S, Aug 22).

Given that there are usually empty shops in the High Street and there are suggestions that more are to be created in the former Rutson Hospital site, I cannot see the need for anymore; so may I through your newspaper make a suggestion to the various authorities involved.

The North Yorkshire County Archives are in dire need of modern accommodation so why not move the archives to the prison site along with the library, add in accommodation for a Town (and County?) Museum and an internet cafe for good measure.

The current sites for both the archives and the library could be sold off for housing, of which there is a shortage, and the income used to help finance the move to the prison site. The combined site would create a wonderful, and possibly unique, concentrated facility for a wide range of research activities in a preserved building of historic importance with more than adequate parking nearby in Crosby Road.

I believe that this is an opportunity not to be missed and one that is readily achievable especially if the three authorities involved, town, district and county, show a willingness to work together in way that has not always been obvious in the past.

ROBERT CARTER

Brompton, Northallerton