A few years ago, probably before some of the younger members who are making today's decisions even left school, the local council and East Riding council were trying to find ways of forcing the cattle livestock to vacate the now proposed site and to move Kelleythorpe Industrial Estate.

Some of the reasons put forward to try to force the move were the noise created at an early hour by the stock-carrying vehicles arriving, the infrastructure and problems created by the size of the stock carriers which were only approximately one third of the size and less than a quarter of the weight of the vehicles which would be delivering to the stores today.

These vehicles could be up to 40 tons in weight and tow trailers up to 40 feet in length. Also the restricted access and egress to the site, coupled with the size and weight, is going to cause problems.

In the old days, vehicle parking had to be restricted on market days so that vehicles and stock wagons could gain access. The new store is going to require, it is estimated, at least 20 to 30 large delivery vehicles will require access every 24 hours.

The council, in its wisdom, is now proposing new traffic measure which they hope will work miracles, a raised ramp crossing by the Mariners and a mini-roundabout at the junction of Gallows Lane and Eastgate South. These will not work.

Any large vehicle travelling down Albion Street towards the junction of Harper Street that meets a double deck bus or other large goods vehicle will not have room to manoeuvre as some of us saw in the video clip. Even with rear end steerage which is fitted to some large vehicles, they would have problems.

The council's answer to this, is to put in new yellow lines at the junction. If I was on one of my visits to members of my family, and were to use my disability parking pass and park on the double yellow lines, that would again cause problems. So the council will have to have a rethink about putting kerb markings so as to stop parking altogether.

If you were to visit York, in the area of the Minster and the Shambles, you would find traffic is restricted to small vehicles or not allowed at all due to the structure of historical buildings which were built without proper foundations or footings. This has been implemented to stop the vibration factor which is created by large heavy vehicles that will, over time, very quickly cause subsidence and cracking.

As a lot of the properties along the proposed cattle market access route enter this category, I wonder whether the East Riding council is willing to cover the cost of under-pinning properties from council funding to stop this happening. I think not.

None of the companies looking to build on the site would accept liabilities for damage or subsidence after the building work on any new store was completed as they had been given permission for the buildings to be erected, but East Riding council and its planning department will have left themselves wide open to be sued and taken to court for damages, reimbursement or restoration due to their negligence in passing the plans in the first place.

I would like to see a collective solicitor's letter sent to the said councils on behalf of all the affected householders, telling them that they will be deemed responsible for anything untoward that will occur if building work n a new store is allowed to go ahead.

They cannot then say they did not think anything like this would occur - it must be down to an Act of God.

God does work in mysterious ways. Let us hope he works a miracle on those in the councils who will be responsible if this goes ahead.

Finally, the new store will not be bringing much more employment into the town as we are led to believe. In fact, it may be a lot less than at present.

You only have to look at the new self-service tills that have been introduced in many stores, the one on George Street, for example.

The customer operates the till and the ratio of staff is about one staff member to five tills.

That works out at only five staff to look after 25 tills, a huge reduction in manning requirements that will be required in the new store.

Why not look at placing any new complex on the Kelleythorpe Industrial Estate where the infrastructure is in place.

This area will be able to cope with any intrusion that may take place in erecting a new store and let the council place something on the site that will be of benefit to the people of Driffield in all age brackets.

M G L Palmer, of Woldholme Avenue, Driffield, writes . . .