Not Entirely Convincing

The Darlington Farmers Auction Market is appealing against a notice served by Darlington Borough Council, which said it must stop moving animals between 9pm and 7am for environmental health reasons.

The noise abatement notice, issued in January under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, took issue with shouting and vehicle and animal noise generated by the collection and delivery of the cattle and sheep.

Giving evidence at Darlington Magistrates Court, auctioneer and manager of the market, Stephen Aitken, 41, said livestock must arrive between 4.10am and 6.30am depending on the day of the week.

Looking at it from one side, such noise must of course be considerable: but then again, those living around it (it's 130 years old) have all moved there after its existence, so it's a bit late to start complaining now.

However, there's another side to it as well:

He said: "The council have a lot to gain by getting rid of the Darlington mart. It's a very valuable site. They get a prime site in the middle of the town".

Now it does depend a little upon who owns that land: if it's the council then they'd be entirely within their rights to throw the market off and develop it: moving resources from low to higher value uses is of course the very definition of wealth creation.

However, the suspicion is there that there's some hiding behind those environmental health reasons to cover an economic motive and that's something that enrages many: certainly does me. If they want to get rid of the market they should simply say so.

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