PROPERTY owners on the banks of several Yorkshire Dales rivers are keeping their fingers crossed today (Tuesday, January 22), hoping that the risks of severe flooding have passed and the promise of a break in the heavy rains of the past weeks.

Huge amounts of water have passed down the rivers Aire, Wharfe and Ure and are now causing anxiety on the lower reaches. But Environment Agency officials gave an official All Clear on Eller Beck, Skipton, at 1.27 am this morning.

At one point yesterday, the beck was under Severe Flood Risk assessment - the "red alert" of agency warnings- and property owners were out in parts of the town sand-bagging their homes and offices.

All Clear signals were also given on the Ribble and Hodder in the Settle, Gisburn and Clitheroe areas.

The Wharfe was still high at Bolton Abbey, with treats to the famous Devonshire Arms Hotel cellars, and Broughton Beck Business Park, near Skipton, home to dozens of high-tech companies.

The local weather forecast in the Dales suggests that today and tomorrow should be mainly dry with only a small risk of light rain. If the forecast holds, it should allow Dales rivers to return to a near-normal winter flow.