Sir, - May I draw your readers' attentions to last week's D&S, in which Hambleton District Council placed public notices of planning applications for housing development on Castle Hills and Yafforth Road in Northallerton.

The Castle Hills development is contingent upon that at Yafforth Road, the old York Trailers site, as this is the only way of obtaining access.

We believe there is no justification in changing Castle Hills from its current planning status of green wedge, outside the town's development limits.

The site has been central to the history of the town through the ages and research is ongoing on this; our next talk on May 13 covers this very topic.

If the site is no longer needed for farming, it should be gifted to the town as parkland to be freely enjoyed by all.

The plans for the Yafforth Road site represent a complete about-face by the planners, as in the initial allocations of the ongoing Local Development Framework, the site was designated as commercial.

We believe it should remain so: it is clearly in the commercial zone in that it is bounded in the north by the Standard Way Industrial Estate and in the east by Barkers Furniture Store, and predominantly by other commercial developments, shortly to include new offices for Fordy Thompson on the old Sparkprint site.

The joint developments represent 481 houses, 150 on Castle Hills and 331 on the York Trailers site, which with accompanying car ownership will all be on "the wrong side of the tracks"

and, inevitably, place further strain on the Low Gates access into the town.

No realistic plans have been put forward to overcome this problem in the short-term and, until this is done, no development having a serious impact on traffic flows should be considered.

Members of the public can object to these proposals by May 6. We urge those who may be concerned by any aspect to make their views known to their local councillors and through the planning process.

If anyone requires advice on the history of the Castle Hills site, they are welcome to contact any member of our society.

J G SHEEHAN Secretary, Northallerton Local History Society