THE current development of the Northallerton relief road between Darlington Road and Stokesley Road is now well under construction and the arrival of the bridge over the railway line eagerly awaited.

Site boards and council plans announce a large complex of housing, shops, a school, leisure facilities, and landscaping of this area on the northern outskirts of the town.

The centre of Northallerton is also to have a major development on the former prison site comprising of residential, shops, restaurants, leisure facilities, a cinema and an open landscaped area.

Have the local councillors had a walk along Northallerton High Street recently? The number of empty premises is alarming.

Some of the privately owned specialist shops are being priced out of business with high rents and business rates.

Are these additional commercial premises really needed in Northallerton?

The county town of North Yorkshire, Northallerton has certainly grown and developed over the 30 years I have lived here.

Surely I am not alone in my concerns that these present development schemes are over ambitious and may result in simply creating more empty shops and office premises on the High Street.

I found a travel writer’s comment in a coach company brochure which said: “Unfortunately there is little to entice tourists to visit Northallerton. As you approach it, it looks an obviously attractive area in which to live, but it is very much a ‘one street, blink and you missed it’ town to visit for no longer than an hour or so for a meal or essential shopping.

“Unfortunately, I cannot recommend anything of historic or cultural interest here.

Northallerton must surely be the most uninteresting and featureless county town in the whole country.”

Hopefully, the new relief road over the railway will ease the present traffic chaos in Northallerton caused by the level crossing closing the road with annoying regularity.

For drivers other than local residents, however, it may simply become a welcome bypass!

N Smith, Brompton, Northallerton