constituency. There are 2 electoral wards in Pickering (east and west). Their cumulative population is equal to that listed for the Town. Pickering is one of the few places with Liberal Party councillors, on Ryedale District Council where they are the second largest party, and on North Yorkshire County Council. Geography Situation Pickering is situated at the junction of the A170, which links Scarborough with Thirsk, and the A169 linking Malton and Whitby. It occupies a broad strip of land between the Ings and Low Carrs to the south of the main road and a ridge of higher, sloping ground which is surmounted by the castle to the north. It is sited where the older limestone and sandstone rocks of the North York Moors meet the glacial deposits of the Vale of Pickering. The limestone rocks form the hill on which the higher parts of the town and the castle are situated. Pickering Beck is a watercourse that runs north to south through the centre of the town. It rises on the moors and drains southwards through Newton Dale before reaching Pickering. It is prone to flooding at times of exceptional rainfall when areas of town close to the beck become flooded. The town centre lies east of the beck, though the population is almost equally divided between its east and west wards. Pickering has developed around the old Market Place but the majority of houses are now in the residential estates off the main A170 road. Physical geography To the north of Pickering is the high moorland of the North York Moors, rising from above sea level at its southern edge to over on Urra Moor. It is dissected by a series of south-flowing streams which include Pickering Beck. Most of the moorland consists of Jurassic sandstone with occasional cappings of gritstone on the highest hills. To the south these rocks are overlaid with oolitic limestone which forms flat-topped tabular hills with an escarpment to the north and gentler slopes to the south. Ice action in the last glaciation deepened pre-existing valleys, and determined the line of the rivers and streams. Newtondale to the north of Pickering was cut by meltwater from ice in Eskdale gouging a deep channel as it flowed southwards to the lake which filled the Vale of Pickering. This lake was blocked by ice and glacial deposits near the coast so it drained through the