Sir, – Now that the Bedale by-pass is to be built, so does a new car park to attract tourists to visit Bedale. Without it, local traders will suffer.

The plan for the Gateway car park, proposed by Hambleton District Council, is on the basis that one of the existing town car parks in Bedale is sold to fund it "due to financial constraints." Financial constraints determined by who?

Demand for existing car parks will increase as residents from the new houses being built at Aiskew and Leeming Bar will hopefully come to Bedale to shop. The answer is to retain both existing car parks, and the scale down the proposed Gateway car park.

Hambleton District Council seems quite prepared to buy the prison in Northallerton for redevelopment, to secure the future prosperity of the town since the loss of employment caused by its closure, but without insisting on the local residents forfeiting a current asset in return.

It has paid a lot of money to consultants to tell it what its own staff should have known anyway when they introduced parking charges. Also, it appears that it recently gave what seems unnecessarily generous redundancy packages to some senior staff.

So, Hambleton District Council really has got the money, and I suggest it stops bullying Bedale over the need to sell an existing car park to fund the Gateway car park and builds it, albeit on a more sensible scale.

RICHARD POOLE

Snape, Bedale.