THE article published in The Press on May 3 "Outcry over Gypsy family's plan for site in Sheriff Hutton" is tantamount to inciting racial hatred.

Instead of focusing on the technical grounds for which a planning application to establish a permanent home for a Gypsy family might be rejected, the article reports that 'scores of residents' have opposed the application, and provides quotations of a tendentious nature concerning the risk of increased crime, adverse impact on personal safety and valuables, and most egregiously, the risk of falling property prices in the village.

The article also commends the beauty, tranquility and safety of living in this part of Ryedale, implying that all this will be lost should the application be approved.

The claim that village residents 'are in uproar' is without foundation.

Multiple objections posted on Ryedale District Council planning pages should not be interpreted as 'uproar'.

It is possible that any number of residents are indifferent to the proposal or simply happy that due process be followed and the application will either be supported or rejected by the relevant authorities according to the merits of the case, regardless of prejudicial assumptions concerning the family involved.

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