WE think the decision to site the new motorway service area for the A1 in North Yorkshire at Leeming Bar is the right one.

Leaving aside for a moment the fact that a service area already exists there, in family ownership, the alternative sites being considered, and backed by some big multi-national businesses, are a considerable distance south and near to the large services recently constructed at Wetherby.

But the principal disadvantage of the proposed sites at Rainton, Baldersby and Kirby Hill was that the construction of the service areas there, with their attending parking, petrol stations and hotels/lodges, would have eaten up many acres of prime agricultural land and this is on top of the land lost to the construction of the upgraded road.

At Leeming Bar, most of the facilities already exist. Certainly, there will have to be some improvments, particularly to the parking, but the basic infrastructure is present.

The decision also means that the 100-plus staff who work at the Lodge at Leeming Bar and the associated businesses can feel more secure. The uncertainty surrounding what has been a tortuous process has not been good for them, or the businesses which have had a difficult time recently because of the motorway upgrade.