WORRIED councillors have decided a popular car boot sale will not start before August and may not operate again this year .

Bedale Town Council runs the Saturday car boot sales on the site of the town’s historic park, alongside local charities.

Money is collected by volunteers and charities also keep part of the money paid by cars and vans coming in.

Over the years thousands of pounds has been raised for good causes.

With the recent reopening of outdoor markets, the council was asked to decide if the car boot sales should be re-started.

It then made a public appeal to residents to gage opinion from the people who would be most affected to find out what they thought.

Clerk Nick Reed told a virtual meeting of the town council that the majority of more than 100 comments were against the sales restarting for the foreseeable future.

Work to repair the park toilets is not due to be finished until after July 18 but August could be considered as the earliest possibility.

Councillor Mike Barningham said: "Some people are saying not to open it at all this year.

"I would call it like a festival type event rather than a market, it is a free for all, nobody can control the stall holders or the public going in.

"The biggest fear I have is control, we do have control in the outdoor market.

"Until we get an all-clear altogether for festivals and large meetings of groups of people we should lock this down altogether."

Councillor Malcolm Young added: "I don’t think any this year, it would be like Richmond Falls, a lot of people would descend on Bedale, even if we limited parking space and social distancing that isn’t going to work and there won’t be enough police.

"I just don’t think it is going to be safe."

Councillor Amanda Coates said: "We’re very lucky our R rate is really low. "With the car boot sale the amount of people coming into town from other areas is huge and in these other areas the R rate isn’t as low.

"I just think we should wait and err on the side of extreme caution."

Mayor councillor Andrew Hallett agreed, saying: "We are better waiting, we need to protect ourselves and our people and review it in August."

Councillor John Noone added: "It would be very difficult to regulate, how do you achieve social distancing?

"We can’t regulate the number of people who come in."

Members agreed charities which had been allotted a car boot sale this year would be guaranteed a space next year.