Sir, - Having read of the proposed move of the Northallerton Auction Mart to a site close to the housing estate on Thirsk Road (D&S, July 18), I think this a most deplorable situation.

I have lived on this road for more than 30 years and seen an alarming increase in traffic.

There is only one entrance and exit to the St James's estate. There have been several accidents there already.

I don't know where the "500 metres" down Thirsk Road referred to in your report is measured from but if it is from St. James Road - this is considerably less than half a mile in old measure.

There is a very heavy volume of traffic, heavy farm vehicles, car transporters, supply vehicles etc. More importantly there is a lot of speedy traffic due to all the emergency services which use this road.

It is also used when the A19 is blocked to re-route traffic through Northallerton.

I would have thought a site out on the Yafforth Road area - already industrial - would have been much more appropriate and less disruptive.

GWENETH ATKINSON

Thirsk Road,

Northallerton.

Resentful

Sir, - I refer to the report about the election of a deputy leader for Richmondshire District Council with an allowance of £1,815 (D&S, July 18). Once again the district's residents are expected to accept a fait accompli.

Of course, if the job as Leader of the district council has become too demanding for Mr Blackie, then he should resign or pay his deputy's salary.

If he did not wish to "pay up with a smile" then certainly there should have been a job description, and the vacancy made public so that any councillor could have applied.

If the salary is "found" out of existing budgets, what will the general public be going without?

It is these little short cuts that get the executives a bad name, and make the ratepayers feel resentful.

BETTY ROBERTSON

Vicarage Road,

Hipswell,

Catterick Garrison.

Overgrown plot

Sir, - I would like to make a comment on the state of two graveyards in the Hawes and Bainbridge areas.

I used to live at Burtersett until 1980 with my late husband. I now live in Leicester and do not get up to the dales at all, but I did come up with my family in June of this year for a weekend.

I made a point of taking flowers to my late mother-in-law's grave at the cemetery on Burtersett Road and must say the cemetery was beautiful, very tidy and well kept.

On the following day I went to put flowers on my best friend's grave at Bainbridge and what a difference I found. It was really awful, very overgrown and just as if no one cared.

I was very upset to see the state of it and felt I had to bring this to the notice of the parish council in the hope it can try to make it like the Hawes Cemetery.

SUSAN HALLAM

Healey Street,

South Wigston,

Leicester.

Milky Bar kids

Sir, - Having recently read an article about the Public Benefit Boot and Shoe Factory in Leeds, it reminded me of the branch shop in Thirsk, managed by Mr Harry Parker until about 1936/7.

This property then became the Milk Bar owned by Mr G W Green and managed by Mabel (Chatty) Shields.

Subsequent owners were Harry Gordon, Hardy, Gibson, Lynch and possibly others.

R SMITH

Croft Heads,

Sowerby.

Search for pilot

Sir, - On September 30, 1940, as a small child I was detained in the Yeatman Hospital, Sherborne, Dorset, following a serious operation.

On that day at 4pm, the town was bombed.

An RAF Hurricane was shot down, and the pilot was admitted to the bed next to mine, with extensive back injuries from cannon fire sustained during action overhead.

The pilot related the whole action to me, and gave me one of his tunic buttons as a memento, which I have kept to this day.

I wish to locate the pilot of long ago, and if not him, then perhaps his next of kin, or friends who knew him.

The detail I have is that he survived the war and resigned from the RAF in 1946 with the rank of Fl Lt Herbert Walton. He was born on June 7, 1916, and married Mary Shepherdon. They had a daughter Elizabeth Rosemary. His home address on resignation from the RAF was 3 Chatsworth Terrace, Boroughbridge.

I would be grateful to hear news of Herbert Walton. Perhaps he is, or was, a member of the RAF Association?

WILLIAM EARLE

57 Ashcroft Road,

Cirencester,

Glos GL7 IRZ.