Malton’s biggest land and property owner, the Fitzwilliam Estate, has added its weight to calls for a decision on the future of Wentworth Street car park to be delayed.

Ryedale District Council is expected to discuss plans to sell the car park at a meeting today.

Farmers and town centre traders have already spoken out against the idea, and are urging members to delay making any decision until further consultation has gone ahead.

Roddy Bushell, manager for the Fitzwilliam Estate in Malton, said: “We want answers to questions and to look at the long-term future of Malton town centre.”

He added that the estate had yet to be convinced that using the car park for a superstore was the right decision to enhance the vitality and viability of the town centre.

Mr Bushell said: “Even if that is the right decision – which we do not accept – all of the advice the council has received says that if there is to be store, it would be a pre-requisite for the development to have improved links with the town centre.”

He added: “The estate has, on several occasions, expressed a willingness to work with the council on a joint-venture basis to create a co-ordinated development in that part of the town, so that those links will be made. We have had no formal response to that offer.”

He said the estate had yet to have “a convincing answer” from council officers on parking provision in the town centre.

“What is the evidence that the town will be left with sufficient parking spaces available for the town centre, on the completion of the development?”

The main strategic sites in the town are supposed to be assessed through the local development framework process – the planning blueprint for Ryedale for the next 16 years – which is currently being drawn up and consulted on.

And Mr Bushell described the proposal by Ryedale council to sell the car park for a retail development before the framework is completed as “premature”.

Mr Bushell said the council had previously agreed to merely assess the market interest in the car park.

“It received a positive response and appears to have moved straight to a decision to sell the site,” he said.

He has told councillors and chief executive Janet Waggott, in a letter: “These are crucial questions that all stakeholders in the town centre will expect to be answered before any irrevocable decisions on the future of the car park are made.