Sir, – I read with interest your article on the £600,000 Bedale car park to go ahead following an about turn by council bosses (D&S, July 24).

Once again this announcement is accompanied by the veiled threat that one of the two town centre car parks may face closure to help pay for it if they don’t meet the as yet unspecified viability criteria.

I would like to draw to the attention of the deputy leader of the council Councillor Peter Wilkinson that people who currently travel to Leyburn and the Dales by going through Bedale already pass the entrances of the two town centre car parks on their way there, so surely it must be plain to anyone with a modicum of common sense that if they are not prepared to use the car parks adjacent to the town centre they are unlikely to use one that is situated over three hundred yards on the outskirts of the town. Unfortunately common sense has never been one of the qualifications deemed necessary to become a local councillor.

May we the hard pressed ratepayers be told of what criteria the two town centre car parks have to attain to be considered viable and has the council got enough confidence in the new 'gateway' car park to apply the same set of rules to it?

When every other town in Britain is crying out for more town centre car parking Hambleton Council must stand alone as the only authority who contemplates closing one.

Bill Tetlow, Exelby, Bedale