Dear Sir,
I was delighted last week to see the Newton News talking real sense about the market situation.
Whilst I appreciated the motives of the people who were campaigning to retain the existing market, I was never happy about a proposal which sought to do so by putting it on a piece of waste ground.  Newton Aycliffe needs and deserves a bustling, high-quality market in the new town centre.  So what we want to see now is the Town Council and the town centre owners working together proactively, in partnership, to try to achieve that.
That leaves – as the Newton News pointed out – the issue of what we do with the undeveloped land on the corner of Greenwell Road.  As a prime site at the entrance to the town centre forum, it needs and deserves a high-quality development appropriate to the new town centre.  So what we need to see here is the County Council proactively marketing it as a development site.
This will need, first, grasping the nettle of what we do with the Cubby and, then, preparing the site to the point where it is fit to put on the market. I am nervous about how long these matters can take, but I am certain that we need to start on them both as soon as possible.
John D Clare