READERS will be aware of the decision of Ryedale District Council Conservatives to close the Ryedale Indoor Bowling Centre in Norton.

The Conservative Party’s reasons for so doing have been well documented in these columns. In a nutshell, and as usual, it boils down to money.

In this case a relatively paltry sum when compared the massive amount of tax payers money which may well be squandered in pursuit of the Tory party’s Wentworth Street supermarket pipe dream.

Yet again the ruling Conservative group displays its true colours. In pursuit of its blinkered aim to deprive the community of a much-cherished leisure facility, they have taken us back to the Thatcher/Major years when they knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.

All councillors who sit outside the Conservative group are fighting to save the bowling centre. I hope that users of the facility, past and present, will join us in appealing for the decision to be revisited.

Should that course of action prove to be unsuccessful, I trust that the discerning electorate of Ryedale will make their feelings known at the earliest opportunity, via the ballot box.

Peter Walker, Independent councillor for Norton East, Howe Road, Norton, Malton.