SCORES of mainly city dwellers gathered at the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Palace home in London today to hold a quiet conference spurred on by rising noise levels in the Yorkshire city of Sheffield.

Acting under orders from the European Union, the British Government is soon to introduce a national policy aimed at reducing noise pollution and today’s conference of conservation bodies was meeting to draw up advice to help Whitehall to achieve this aim.

One of the startling findings to be presented to delegates came from a study by Sheffield University scientists which says that noise levels in the city centre had increased ten times in the past decade.

For once, this is a national concern which has largely escaped the Yorkshire Dales. A survey by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, one of the lead participants in today’s conference, suggests that they have some of the quietest areas in the country.

However, that is not the case for Skipton residents for the Sheffield study shows that one of the main causes of increased noise levels is building work on major building or re-development projects.

Skipton has suffered this over the past 18 months with major work on converting Belle Vue Mills in Broughton Road into flats and the building of a new Marks & Spencer food store next to the town hall.

Soon, more work will start on a large new office block on a green field site on Gargrave Road – source of one of the most bitter planning rows the town has seen for 50 years – and work is due to start on the extension of the already large Tesco supermarket in the next few months.