THE new town manager post in Northallerton has come under fire from a councillor who has likened proposed strategies to "reinventing the wheel".

Coun John Coulson said plans put forward by newly-appointed town manager, Geraint Williams, were already covered by other organisations.

At a meeting of Northallerton Town Council, Coun Coulson criticised proposals to look at car parking, developing a new town logo and festivals in the town.

"Hambleton District Council has done a parking strategy, so why have we spent time having studies done only to have the problems looked at them again?" said Coun Coulson. "The town council's logo has been sent out on thousands of documents across the world, and to lose it would be wrong. And in terms of promoting Northallerton, groups such as Action for Market Towns are already in place to do that.

"We are in danger of spending the tax-payers' money willy-nilly and just going round in circles."

Ken Blackwood, chairman of the town management board, said the town manager post did not aim to replicate existing strategies, but move them forward.

"We are not re-inventing the wheel, we are trying to move it along the road," said Mr Blackwood. "The job is about picking up issues that have been identified as valuable for the town, and making sure that they happen."

He said the town manager was required to focus on issues that had been laid out in the Northallerton and Villages Community Plan, and the Renaissance Market Town Plan, both of which Coun Coulson had been involved in.

"The town manager will tackle these issues, pull together feedback from various groups, and make sure things don't sit on the shelf for the next ten years," said Mr Blackwood. "There are a lot of things happening in the town which at the moment may be too much for councillors to deal with alongside their other responsibilities.

"The decision has been made to create the town manager post, so let's be open-minded at this stage and judge it by its results."

Town manager Mr Williams said: "The key to success is working closely with people in the town, so I welcome issues such as this being brought to the forefront."

He said his job specification required him to look at issues including parking and festivals, and said that the management board was not permitted to use council logos for marketing purposes, hence the need for a separate one.

"This is a new post, and it will take time to for people to understand exactly what it involves," said Mr Williams. "But I am a man of action, and I am determined to move things forward."