I agree with everything you say about the demise of the British Pub, John, but can this latest threat be true? Don't English brewers use only premium quality British malting barleys?

Fantastic. Its amazing how technology has done a full circle. To get eneough power for x100 homes per day is great and maybe we should be harnesing local rivers near weirs for this.

Numbers of both greenfinches and sparrows have declined in my garden over the last 8-10 weeks. I therefore plan to wash my feeders with Potassium permanganate again. I used this powerful antiseptic in the spring in the hope that infections may be reduced.

Any alternative precaution suggestions will be gratefully received. The good news is that goldfinches seem unaffected as they produced at least 5 chicks some weeks ago.

Current advice on biosecurity is insufficient. Bird feeders do need regular cleaning but we also need manufacturers to develop bird feeders that are easier to dismantle for washing. There also needs to be consideration of making wooden bird tables more easy to clean. Painting or plastic coating are ideas that come to mind.

What is the most effective disinfectant against trichomonas bacteria? Most households have two, chlorine bleach and a proprietory disinfectant.

So if GM have caused no illnesses and any talk of so-called "environmental" damage is highly dubious and much dependent on interpretation, why are you still uneasy? Are you also uneasy about organic since people die from eating it (spinach in California) whilst birds apparently prefer conventional fields. What is your criterion for feeling uneasy?

I agree wholeheartedly,grouse shooting is essential to the maintenance of heather moorland and to the economy of our area. Unlike the battery-farmed chicken, which we in this country buy and eat by the ton, grouse experience wind, rain and sunshine.

I hope indeed that it will be a record-breaking season for all those involved.

There is a lot of ragwort and other weeds on National Trust owned land in Swaffham Prior Fen (in Mr Paice’s constituency of South East Cambridgeshire).

It is part of the Trust’s so-called ‘Wicken Vision.’ Maybe some people can be got together to pull the ragwort? I’m not going to do it because I am ‘persona non grata’ with the National Trust.

We should address the problem by using the current housing stock, much of which is used infrequently as second homes.

We could buy the properties on the open market, and then either let them out or resell them with a local occupancy condition imposed on them.

About time, a nice goal would be 10% native forest land.

In these times of economic hardship it should if anything prove a more poignant time to acknowledge the rusticity of our existence. Financial cutbacks should make us all take a look at the unnecessary wastes we all make daily.

There also seems to be much costly tidying that occurs in the few small tracts of land in or towns and cities that is both a waste on finances and on the wildlife that depend on these niches in our urban landscape.

Railway embankments . . . verges on industrial estates weeds accumulating at the base of fences etc. All can be awash with colour and life one moment only to become withering patches of brown at the ill fate of the weed killers ruthlessly exacted upon any element of our lives that isn't deemed to be spick and span.

Another good article, John. It's the same at local level. The Skipton Young Farmers' Club Show almost folded, saved only by the Club amalgamating with Silsden Young Farmers' Club with the show now being held alternately at Skipton and Silsden. The reason? There ain't no young farmers left.

They've become almost as Rare a Breed as some of them keep. The average age of the British Farmer is now something like 57 years, and that takes into account many farmers who continue to work well into their seventies. Something else the new head of DEFRA could do well with addressing.

I am not convinced at all that it is either logical or fair to place blame on the CAP for the decline of the cherry in this country. For example, their is no dearth of apples and this is by nature a larger fruit and often larger tree.

Furthermore,the return on apples has never been that large and yet they continue to be cultivated in the UK. I beleive that you have to look for your enemy elsewhere.

I do, however, love cherries and planted a tree last year, which this year bore its first fruit. Thr problem is that birds seem to get to it before we do. Next year, when it has grown larger, I will net it.

Well said, John. If only there were more columnists like you with a rural perspective.

I think that we are very lucky to have the parade on the same week as the armed forces day. To think that are young men and women put there country first to serve in places like Afganistan.

Then to give there time up to march in our little town fills me with only JOY yours John Rose (EX 1st D.E.R.R ARMY)

I am very sad that we have to pay through the nose for my favourite fruit. I will support any initiative that will help to promote British cherry growing.

Totally agree with SavingPetsBlog.

Over the years I have served a large number of cats, and known many more. Currently four cats live with me, and another four with my partner.

Of those, only one of mine is remotely interested in any form of small game, her total years's catch amounting to perhaps three rodents and the odd unlucky fledgeling that has fallen out of its nest. The other three are far too dignified (and fat) to indulge in such common pursuits as hunting.

One of my partner's cats is a hunter, regularly presenting her with the fruits of her endeavours, but after having been seveely chastised on a couple of occasions for bringing birds, she no longer bothers, confining herself to mice, voles and the occasional rat.

From my experience, I doubt that more than one domestic cat in ten can be bothered to hunt on a regular basis, most are just too lazy, and those that do catch far more rodents - a valuable service - than they do birds.

The lack of songbirds in large urban areas is not due to cats, it is due entirely to destruction of habitat and hence lack of food, and I have not noticed any lack in the country, certainly not round here.

What a great idea, i wish i could apply. Im 21 now but did a countryside management course at Skipton when i was 17. I really enjoyed it but couldn't get a job after in that area.

Now im settled in a job that isn't anything to do with countryside management but im so keen to get back into it at some stage!

Financially i cant afford to go on this course but its good to know there are these things going on to help others.

Funny, the exact opposite occurs here in Canada, where Farmers Markets vegetables are typically anywhere from 50% to 200% more expensive than Supermarket vegetables.Costs may be lower, but the "quality" of the local items is often cited as the reason.

The predation of cats is often singled out as the primary reason for the disappearance of song birds, but this is unfair scapegoating for the changes we humans are causing in our own environment.

To give the '55 millon' number some perspective - Dr Ian Newton in his book The Sparrowhawk, the UK's estimated population of 100,000 sparrowhawks will slaughter in excess of 100 million songbirds over a year. This strongly indicates that sparrowhawks are responsible for killing almost DOUBLE the total number of songbirds predated by cats.

In the US, glass windows are estimated to cause 100 to 900+ million deaths per year. Automobiles and trucks are estimated to kill 50 to 100 million. Electric Transmission Lines are estimated to cause up to 174 million, while agricultural Pesticides cause an 67 million bird deaths each year (http://www.currykerlinger.com/birds.htm).

These disruptions to bird numbers are caused by one animal and one animal alone - humans. To suggest that the lack of songbirds in a urban area is due to the presence of cats, and not the clearing of trees, roads, garden pesticides and the lack of appropriate habitat in a suburban environment... is simply ignoring an inconvenient truth.

At last a Westminster appointment of someone who knows something about their portfolio subject and importantly, knows their way around Brussels. She will be able to bring some practical common sense to the table.

That's a second "brownie point" to David Cameron, his first was redressing the disrespect shown to Scotland by the previous administration, when he visited Holyrood 3 days after becoming Prime Minister.

Australian agri-professor Julian Cribb states " nutrients are the oil of the 21st century and the nation that looks after and re-uses them will both prosper economically and environmentally. It will never hunger.

The nation which can most successfully "close the loop" on nutrients by recycling will be at a global economic,nutritional and competitive advantage as well as having cleaner water and a healthier environment.

It will be more food secure on a plant destined for global food insecurity". With peak oil and peak phospherous just one of the externalities about to hit fossil fuel dependent farming, what's wrong with being green? It will even save the industry money.

It is desirable to take care of eagles.

Wind turbines don't last forever, and it is debatable whether the useful energy generated during their lifetime significantly exceeds the energy required to build, instal and maintain them.

A distinguished old friend Stephen Salter whom I knew in 1957 would have more to say.

Woodland should be given proper protection under law, with sites of natural bueaty, special sites of interest etc offering greater protection from land developers and councils that except back handers in order to pass planning applications.

The government should look at the fines that can be currently brought against enviromental damage (this is the level of fines and the process of prosecuting)- these are insufficient and overcomplicated.

All to often these designations, Sites of special Interest etc, are easily ignored or pushed aside in order to make way for unsustainable and inappropriate housing/developments.

There should be some sort of contract saying about the after care of newly planted tree's. Alot of these newly planted tree's will die from lack of maintenance (watering, stopping them from getting overgrown, adjusting their bindings) until there root's get established.

I completely disagree with Mark Newhouse. Quarries are exceptionally bad for the environment and it does not matter whether you can see them or not, it's not an issue of aestheticity.

I think accepting quarries as a necessary evil is completely ignoring the planet's plight and being completely selfish as a race.

Obviously there are benefits for quarries but the disbenefits completely outweigh these and if you are good with words you can find a good side for almost everything. Hence I respectfully disagree.

50 years on from Carson; 2 years on from Georgina Downs' momentous victory in the High Court and the judgment against the Government for their failure to protect rural residents (and local eco-systems) from agricultural spraying.

Basically, the Government, industry and the judiciary are sticking their fingers in their ears and saying La la la!

Currently DEFRA are supposed to be seeking the views on whether there should be mandatory or voluntary measures to;

1. Alert residents before spraying (equality with bees, no less !!- beekeepers legally have to be given 48 hours notice.)

2. Also views are being sought whether the public can be trusted to have the mandatory right to direct access to the information on what they are being exposed to!

"Voluntary measures", so beloved by the industry, have failed to protect water from contamination. So why should voluntary measures be thought to work here?

Georgina's case was "belittled", her evidence, (including that from the Government’s own data) was overturned in the Court of Appeal by Justice Sullivan because he didn't like the fact she wasn't a qualified scientist or doctor!

So will the judiciary, industry, Government or current opposition party take any more notice of Sir David and his qualified and eminent scientists contributers?

Which ever party wins at the next election and by the track record of the last 50 years, I very much doubt they will. The public have until 4th May to vote for mandatory right to access to information and to be given prior notification before spraying.

There is the option for prohibiting spraying in areas where there are vulnerable groups (this definitely, in the new EU law, includes residents!) Spraying therefore should be banned in these situations.

Non chemical methods would preclude the need to do either; would in the long term be more cost effective and less damaging to the public, ecosystems, flora and fauna alike.

The return of Salmon to the rivers of Yorkshire will happen.

I have fished all over the British Isles for Salmon over the last 50 years.I began fishing for trout in 1960 on the River Dove in Derbyshire. Salmom were never caught on the Dove since it ran into the Trent with all it's polluton. Years of environmental clean up by various agencies have seen a return of them to the Derbyshire rivers.

The Yorkshire rivers seem a natural habitat for their breeding. I recently had a walking holiday on the upper Swale and the river looks as fine a Salmon river as any I have seen.

Defra has complete jurisdiction over farmers in England. The British Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have complete control of agriculture in England. What they proposed and decide for England does not affect their constituents in Scotland and they are therefore unaccountable to those for whom these cuts will be deadly serious.

The Scottish Parliament, supported by greater grants per head of population than England administers areas of agriculture and fisheries in Scotland. This perversion of democracy will continue until we have political and constitutional parity with Scotland in an English Parliament answerable only to voters in England.

If the budget for England is cut but Wales and Scotland is protected, English Farmers have only themselves to blame. There is no English Farmers Union or English Minister to go to.

There is only one thing that terrifies politicians and that's an English Parliament. Use it or lose it.

It is disgraceful the amount of litter about. I think it should be part of the curriculum in schools to educate young people how important it is to put litter into the bins provided.

I know it is not just young people who drop litter,but we have to start somewhere. If everyone picked just one bit of litter up a day that would help. I do!!!!

Unfortunately for old mill owners (that's owners of old mills!) and users of second-hand equipment such as Mr Roberts, the Government has decided to exclude them from the 'Feed in Tariff Scheme because only 'accredited equipment' and 'accredited installers' can be used.

Unlike solar power where a few large companies sell a few standard products, hydro is bespoke (except for very small units) and the cost of having every product accredited would be horrendous.

After 35 years in the business I am having to abandon most UK projects under 50 kW, so much for promoting UK manufacturing!

I will be there for the festival this year and am looking forward to it so much. We will stay the week and enjoy what else there is to enjoy in and around the area.

I MUST visit the Narrow Boat Pub as well for their legendary Real Ale. What could be better!

I was brought up in Long Preston, so I find it amazing that Steve Harris does not know what mischief night is. It is the night before Bonfire Night, presumably a commemoration of the mischief that was wrought on that night.

As children in the sixties we used to get up to mischief, swapping the gates from one house to another in Church Street, turning the road signs around to point in the wrong direction, tying the doors together on the Primary School so that the Women at the WI meeting inside couldn't get out, knocking on doors and running away, and suchlike.

Unlike Trick and Treats it is not an American Import, but very much homegrown.

The whole point is that it is supposed to be mischief, rather than actions that cause injury to people or property. As such, people used to turn a blind eye to such actions on mischief night. Unfortunately it has changed in recent years and stupid activities now take place.

I saw Fred as a young boy and was completely gobmacked when Fred said, "all reight lad?". My Dad hadn't seen him walk past us and asked "Who was that"? Freddie Trueman spluttered! Dad spun round to see Fred disappearing and was really annoyed at having missed this Yorkshire legend.

Let's be quite clear here.

It was BASC (British Association for Shooting and Conservation) who, unilaterally, were the first to say that shooters should not use birds that were intensively reared, after undercover video was taken by the animal rights group Animal Aid. This was because they were not prepared to defend the way birds were rared after this became public. This seriously upset other shooting interests. BASC called for higher standards.

As for poults coming in from France, it was revealed that 50% came from France as fallout from the avian flu panic.

So that "quintessentially English" bird, flying freely and innocently over the dales into the line of guns, made its first teetering flight with 35 companions in a plastic box in the belly of a cargo jet bound for Stanstead.

The game farmers are trying to play the "outsider" ploy, anti-Londoners,etc... I quote: "London-based officials at the environment department Defra have struck a major blow against North Yorkshire’s important game-shooting industry".

There are lots of Londoners who shoot. Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and Princes William and Harry. Not to mention David Cameron and William Hague. I am sure Cameron will only shoot at high welfare English birds now - the rumour is that on the Conservative Party website he is calling for high welfare English birds to be sprayed with fluorescent orange dye so they can be distinguished from inferior EU immigrants from France.

This so-called expert is obviously out of touch with reality and farming. They state; "[pheasants are] not [kept in cages] to make them grow faster like battery hens". Since when were battery chickens kept in cages to make them grow? They are used for the production of eggs, not their meat like their broiler counterparts who are reared in sheds.

Personally, I welcome this step and hope that it is one step closer to the stopping of game shooting. In this day and age, one should not be going out and killing animals for one's own entertainment.

Oh come on! Surely you realise that a 25 year old political science graduate working in an office in London knows more about everything than someone who's been doing the job all their life!

My family and I will be travelling to Yorkshire from Ireland this year for a holiday and will certainly now be visiting Skipton to have our photo taken.

It's only recently that Ireland have a good cricketing team and we our players having the same stubborness and charm that Fred Trueman had.

A key criterion set by the conservation industry for determining if a species is “native” is that it should have evolved with all other species within its own ecosystem and not have been introduced or assisted by man to arrive at what is regarded as its natural location. In short, it should have got to where it is by its own efforts and evolved naturally. If man assisted it, it is regarded as “non-native”.

This is confirmed in Scottish Natural Heritage’s website:

“3.5. Native species are presumed to be those that are present in Great Britain by natural means. In general they migrated (or were transported by other species) into Great Britain after the last Ice Age, without the assistance of humans.”

“3.6. Non-native species have been introduced to Great Britain, either deliberately or accidentally, by humans.

However, this criterion is profoundly flawed and is only credible if the actions of humans are wrongly regarded as outside of nature.

There is no doubt that in the animal world we are pretty smart cookies. We have evolved to manufacture modes of air, sea and land transport, store extensions of our memories on computers, provide ourselves with heat and light, cut ourselves open to remove diseased tissue, grow our own animal and vegetable food, and destroy other members of our own species with unimaginable ferocity if they dare to compete with us for desirable objectives. But none of this excludes us from nature. It only shows we have the mental and physical capacity to use tools and weapons made from natural resources to a greater degree than any other species on the planet. So as we are part of nature, it follows that if we transport fauna or flora to our homeland because we find them attractive, then the claim that these introductions are only acceptable “if transported by other species” is exposed as anthropocentric prejudice, masquerading as science, which serves to undermine the whole concept of native and non-native species.

In fact, the survival of all species depends almost solely on their attractiveness to other members of their own species, and in many cases their attraction to other species as well. It is ironic that that attractiveness, which is leading conservationists to “protect” the red squirrel, was the reason for introducing grey squirrels in the past.

Conversely, it is equally ironic that both red and grey squirrels have been demonised as “tree rats” at different times, which has led to tens of thousands being slaughtered because they were intensely disliked for similar reasons. 80,000 red squirrels were killed in Scotland early in the last century by those with forestry interests who blamed them for tree damage.

Also, if it is important to conservationists that a species evolves naturally over millennia in Britain to earn its “native species” status, then it should be equally important that the same species evolving in a different natural environment abroad should not be regarded as “native” to this country. They can’t have it both ways! But they try.

It is well known that the grey squirrel was brought from America to England in the late 19th Century but less known that ancestors of the current population of red squirrels in the UK have been largely introduced from various parts of Europe. These animals evolved within a wide range of climatic and environmental conditions and associated with different flora and fauna encountered across the part of the range they inhabited, so for conservationists to argue that these influences are not important is to argue against their own concept of “native species”.

Both current populations of squirrels, red and grey, have been introduced to this country and there is no evidence that even the earlier red squirrels evolved here continuously from the time of the land bridge to Europe around 10,000 years ago. Scant archaeological snapshots give no indication of a continued presence. Indeed, prior to the 15th century there seems to be no record of the continuous existence of red squirrel populations living in Britain.

“There is no longer a ‘native’ red squirrel due to the frequent introductions from Europe and habitat defragmentation which has allowed gene flow between previously sub-divided populations.” (Harris et al, 2007)

More info about the rural broadband coalition can be found here: http://5tth.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-national-broadband-campaign-final.html

CLA and CRC are members amongst others who are collaborating to bring awareness of the issues in Rural areas to government.

Please support them in any way you can, and let's build a truly digitalbritain. Fibre to the homes, fibre to the SMEs and NGA to the whole country.

Thought you would like to know of a brilliant Garden protector....

I like most gardeners suffer from slugs and snails in this damp weather and in fact now that the climate has changed all over the world we have the slug and snail problem all year round, I have tried beer traps, copper tape, and salt, egg shells, even throwing them in my neighbours garden ( Just kidding )etc,etc all these methods are not practical long lasting and are harmful to Children, pets , wildlife ,and our Environment.

A new device to control slugs and snails called the slugbell placed around flowers and vegetable garden , they use both Organic or Normal Metaldehyde bug pellets and that the small amount of pellets needed will last up to three months.!!! as they don’t dissolve in the soil and Brilliant for our environment , I will try anything to keep my garden looking how it should whilst protecting natures cycle.

I personaly think her paintings are out of this world and brilliant by none, keep on painting more. X

It's time to make people live in area's that have suitable living space/accommodation and natural resources such as water and open spaces. It simply not viable for the whole of our over crowded Island to spoil the Southern region with development added to more development to support the previous development.

I'll swop my southern home for the quality of life in some locations found north of the border. How would you like to drink water from the tap that has been recycled five or more times from the lavatory pan? Struggle to find an open space that you can let a dog off the lead without fear of traffic ?

See your local wildlife disappear before your very eyes because of loss of habitat and pollution.

I hadn't realized this bill would have implications like this on rural areas, and I think this an issue of concern to be sure. But calling Harriet Harmon names, and a 'militant' feminist doesn't help anyone and it doesn't qualify as real journalism either.

Militant feminism? Did I miss her wearing a uniform and shoving the Bill through Parliament at gunpoint?

Bad science, John? You reckon?

Have you seen how much grant money has gone to Pachauri's research company, the chief scientist of which is Syed Hasnain, the "researcher" who is responsible for the alarmist statement about the melting glaciers in the first place?

This is what 'The Times' has to say:

"UN climate chief Rajendra Pachauri 'got grants through bogus claims'

Rajendra Pachauri's Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), based in New Delhi, was awarded up to £310,000 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the lion's share of a £2.5m EU grant funded by European taxpayers."

See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6999975.ece for full article.

Further, the supposedly peer-reviewed paper that predicted dire catastrophes of every type and variety is also nothing of the sort. Its authors now state that there is no statistical evidence whatsoever for the IPCC's extravagant claims of doom and destruction. This now totally discredited IPCC entry is the one that "Sir" Nick Stern based his paper on the costs of AGW on, incidentally. It is interesting to note that in the version of Stern's paper on the internet, one of the relevant numbers has changed by a factor of ten, although none of the associated calculations reflect this amendment.

Now there is another error concerning the Amazon rain forest, and further totally inaccurate statistics concerning the percentage of the population of Holland that would be affected by sea level rise. To name but two of the distortions, fabrications and just plain lies that seem to make up the IPCC's report for policymakers.

This is not bad science, this is fraud on a truly global scale.

No wonder India has pulled out of the IPCC altogether, and is setting up its own research unit, and China has announced that it is unconvinced and is keeping an open mind.

Consensus? What consensus?

But will the - proven dishonest by the expenses enquiry - Government give up its highly profitable crackpot scheme to cover the country with utterly useless - check how much power the whole lot provided during the recent cold snap if you believe otherwise - windfarms?

I'm not holding my breath.

The World of James Herriot is a testimony to the hard work of all of the staff there. It's a most enjoyable and enlightening experience for all who visit.

l agree this should be monitored but l also think it would be better that an area be created for the use of these people who want a 4x4 or bike ride. Somewhere like an old quarry and enough rough area to give them a challenge.

Once you have done this anyone tear-arseing round spoiling the area should have their car or bike ceased ok its a bit extreme but a national park should be for people to enjoy not to destroy.

Before anyone asks yes l have a 4x4 and bikes. The moto is use not abuse. I bet this comment will get a few people going but what the hell there are plenty of other places to be able to take their motors for a challenge.

It is ridiculous that wind farms are being considered in sensitive wildlife and scenic areas when people are allowed to travel abroad for frivolous holidays creating carbon emissions and using up declining world resourses.

Even the RSPB and other wildlife organisations promote holidays to far flung places in their magazines.

It's good to see that Broughton Hall is thriving. I used to spend part of my holidays there when my aunt (Mary Henderson) was the cook for Captain Stephen Tempest, I have fond memories of those times and may I say well done Roger, the hall looks great.

It is the sign of the times that there is a desire to have wild animals in the countryside.

It is evident that whatever the risks to food production or to possible danger to people or their pets that the majority of people who live in towns are wanting to turn the countryside into a wildlife theme park for their amusement.

Only a very few people are going to be adversely affected by this probable severe nuisance, most people are not interested in the details that are at best boring to them, and at worst it will not affect them personally.

This is a commentary on modern society and all its selfishness and shortsightedness.

The RSPB can no longer be trusted on this issue. It has a financial relationship with the wind industry in the form of Scottish and Southern Energy PLC, who pay the RSPB for members who sign up to the their so-called green tariff - ‘RSPB Energy’.

This is based mostly on wind-generated electricity. As far back as 2003-2004 the RSPB earned "around £190,000" from this relationship.

In South Warwickshire there is a proposal for six turbines higher than the spire on Salisbury Cathedral. Just the other side of the hedge there are agricultural stewardship schemes that represent considerable public investment in bio diversity.

To this end there has been great success over recent years with Curlew, Buzzard, Red Kite and recently even Golden Plover finding a place deep in the heart of England. Personal endeavours, and large sums of public money, are now likely to be brought to naught.

The local Green Party at the public planning meeting even spoke of the RSPB saying the ‘area was species poor.’ Why have we abandoned both truth and common sense over wind turbines?

What a sound and truly valid appraisal of the rural scene over the past 'reign of terror' decade.

It is to be hoped that whoever the new incumbants of the power-house become at the next election they will be, if not naturally countrywise, at least provided with sound guidance in the future. Not a vegetarian clique selected to oversee the demise of the British Livestock sector nor a socialistic group who would deny anyone from owning their own workplace - farmland. (Did they never observe the downfall of Russian agriculture when the State dictated?)

Indeed, if we had the strength of French farmers our situation would not have become so dire but there is another issue in the UK, we have now been driven into the corner of a minority. Numbers so small that we do not matter to 'The Vote'. Here lies our real weakness.

DEFRA's headed by Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central, good agricultural area that!. The only purpose that farming has fulfilled in the last decade is to provide paid occupation for hoardes of government staff many of whom exhibit deranged arrogance and supreme ignorance of anything but number-crunching and 'regulation' reading.

Farmers have been the development base of a massive Job Creation Scheme which in the long term overview will have precious little ever to show as a result save that it has driven from the land countless dedicated people together with their future ambitions for their family and local society.

Farming occupies 365 days of the year but I think each and every person of voting age whose living depends on the industry should give time to attend at least one political meeting prior to the Election. Armed with details of the industry be prepared to tackle each candidate with questions - the answers to which might give a clue as to interest and attitude towards the rural scene. Politicians are slightly on the back foot at present.

Make life as uncomfortable for them as it has been for so many farmers during the last decade.

I too have just looked up photographs of Long Tailed Tits. I saw a group this morning pecking at Hawthorn Berries. I wasn't sure what they were as they didn't have very much black feathering to their heads,so seems they may be youngsters.

I just wanted to add that I was lucky enough to buy a few acres of agricultural land eight years ago.

There were no trees or hedgerows except for one mature oak tree. I am on a budget so creating a hedgerow was going to be difficult. To add to the problem Network Rail felled a neighbouring mature stretch of woodland that they said was a danger to the railway?..

I thought that trying to do my bit to be green?,createing a much needed hedgerow around my land would be of interest to all of the various organisations that are Country? minded.

I won't name any but I asked every organisation that everyone is aware of for a donation of trees,plants etc,not money. Not one of them was interested..The only free trees that were on offer were 25 whips from the local council.

Well,I have added and continue to add shrubs etc when I can and I am over the moon with the colours and bird visitors that take advantage of what is established.

Friends and family have donated various hedgerow shrubs,all native species. As and when funds allowed I bought what I could. I also went to various nursuries and scrounged odd shaped trees etc at a very reasonable price.

Within two years of planting many birds started to arrive. I think the Redwings are my favourite. The resident Robins of course and many other varieties that I wouldn't ever see in my garden.

I wish the decision-makers at the top would listen to those on the 'shopfloor' so to speak. Beaver introduction is an ill-thought idea on the grounds mentioned by the author of the report.

Politicians should concentrate on the big issues such as poverty, widespread flooding, climate change etc. without spending time on do-gooder vote catching concepts such as beaver introduction.

The report was issued in 2006, but without the warnings, which were removed by govt. officials because it would impact on their plans to push ahead with thousands of wind turbines - the majority far too close to village homes.

That report has always been quoted by wind developers and planning officials as proof that wind turbines do not produce noise problems: now we know that we were lied to. The many people living close to industrial wind turbines who suffer noise problems have always known that.

Go to Wind Concerns Ontario www.windconcernsontario.org to find out about the health issues caused by wind turbines in Canada and what we are doing about it.

People here are abandoning their homes or are being bought out by the wind developer. We are trying to demand health studies before wind turbines.

In the mid eighties I went through a divorce and then having custody of my 3 year old twins. Reading Mr. White's series kept me calm and together.

Boy, do I love the books and TV shows! I also hope that us Yanks will get to see the new program. (Maybe through BBC America?)

Thanks!

I agree that a large number of small scale green energy have the potential to provide the same energy as 2 Nuclear power station. The sad fact is that if we are going to make a difference we need more than 2 new nuclears! in fact the current plans for each of the 10 sites identified by the goverment plans are well advanced for 2 or 3 at each site!

The small scale energy capture is also fical, next week we will have a high pressure cold snap - no wind, no rain will meen no energy from these sources just when we have the greatest need. Take time next week to gaze at the wind turbines, you may find them turning (but this will be for grid regulation not electricity production).

I work in a Nuclear power plant, the answer is not Nuclear or wind, or hydro but all the above if we are to meet our climate comitments.

Absolutely, good for commuters to Manchester from the dales, pull in more tourists to the Dales without cars especially if they made the grassington branch line a passenger line as well.

We need more trees! Not for Co2, but simply because they are beautiful creations and the way we tear through them is awful.

More tress are a good thing. Next we just need to get over the idea that paper comes from them, and use something cheaper and more sustainable, like hemp. It should probably be illegal to use wood for paper all things considered.

Interesting… At the moment household coal is the most expensive it has ever been, and I find it strange that nobody in the government has even given a serious thought about the growing and pollarding / coppicing of fast-growing tree species such as the Goat Willow? Has the government turned a blind eye to the encouragement of growing trees for fuel? Why haven’t subsidies for this been encouraged, especially when they are always harping on about different ways we can collectively save the planet (asides from their green taxes)?

Asides from the obvious benefits (reducing global warming, changing the climate, eating carbon dioxide – yes I am being facetious) there are other, more pressing benefits for the promotion of subsidies for planting willow trees:-

Reduction of flooding in lowland areas – One of the major reasons why flooding is so prevalent (commonly overshadowed by the almighty “global warming”) is because of the loss of the upland sponge. Drainage techniques have improved over the last 50 years increasing the amount of surface run-off to the rivers faster than ever before. In simple terms it is far easier now than it has ever been to dig a ditch, and by digging drainage ditches water flows from the field more rapidly into the watercourses, more water going into the rivers too quickly results in flooding… simple isn’t it? Therefore by planting trees… now do you see where I am going on this one?

Green Fuel – Yes, as I said coal is the most expensive it has ever been, no thanks to Mr Brown and his taxation policies, Mrs Thatcher and her colliery closures, and the NCB for not mothballing British collieries properly. The basic fact is, most of our coal requires transporting and as oil is getting more and more difficult to attain the oil price will go up. The government will jump on THAT bandwagon and continuously increase the revenue on hydrocarbon-based products, no doubt part of their ‘Green Levy’, and thus the price of household coal will further increase, leaving dear old Grandma out of pocket. How about an alternative? What about a fuel that is cheap, that grows fast, doesn’t require too much effort to ‘farm’, and would provide fuel for households meanwhile offsetting its carbon fingerprint? Hmm…

Not only for household fuel, but trials are being carried out at the moment to utilise the sugar from willow stems and convert it into a biofuel. Surely this is an investment?

For the farmer – If the government offered increased subsidies for the growing of such fuels, they would be able to reduce their Carbon offset, reduce the millions spent on flood defences and the place would be a greener, happier world. And lets not forget – trees are easier to manage than sheep.

As I type I am having difficulties in thinking what are the negatives?

I have to admit if I had ‘great tracts of land’ I’d be happily farming trees…

I have been visiting the Dales for the last 38 years on a regular basis, and have had a caravan permanently sited in Wensleydale for the past 12 years. Whilst talking to local business people and farmers it is clear to me that they regret handing "control" to a national park authority.

I work for a local authority, and I realise there is a big push for affordable housing. How hard could it be to dig a hole for a cess pit and supply a generator, and "BINGO" a barn can be converted to a small low cost domicile. If there is no use for the barns, and no permission to sell them on to young couples, there will also be no need to repair and maintain them.

After the last storms a few weeks ago I have noted another three barns without roofs and large sections of their walls missing. Give it some consideration before time overtakes any practical options.

I think that youth councils are a brilliant way for our youth to get there voices heard. It is when they have no opportunity to voice their opinions that we start to create problems within our society.

I can only see this as a fantastic step forward. We cannot forget that it is the youth of today that will one day be running this country, letting them get experience from a younger age can only be a good thing.

This news should, in my view, encourage all the local authorities (and all other area beneficiaries) to invest further & heavily in the railway to enable rapid expansion both east and west (the priorty in my view being Northallerton) to the benefit of All concerned.

This is surely, as they say, a no brainer. It needs to happen NOW.

Otter may be fine for some people but not for all. My 6 finest Koi have been killed, mostly eaten and the remains left in or beside the pond.

Disturbance of the pond plant would indicate substantial activity in the water. I think an Otter has killed these fish which I have been looking after for 15 years.

Fat lot of good otters are to me!! An otter has been seen not far from my house.

A bit of 'warming' at Westminster would be a good idea. Guy Fawkes was on the right lines.

As a regular visitor to Rosedale Abbey Village over the past 45 years I have noticed the gradual decline in employment for local people particularly that which would attract youngsters, which now have to leave the area. With the exception of the good local campsite, the Glassworks and three sources of refreshment in addition to a Public House there is little of substance to provide employment.

Rosedale along with several nearby villages, such as Huton-le-Hole are in breathtakingly beautiful countryside with the benefit of little through road problems of heavy trafic. This area would make a splendid place for walkers and cycling if some of the excellent vacated local premises could be utilized for Hostel facilities and outdoor healthy activities.

This would provide full year employment for a considerable number of young and mature people and help to stem the vacated houses becoming retired homes for non local people. and maintain what is an excellent local community!

I had a few days in Kielder last year at a 'star camp'

The night sky was brilliant,the dark sky was perfect.

The Yorkshire Dales should be very good,can anyone tell me the position of the darkest sky in the yorkshire dales?

Reforestation is the key, without this we will not be able to sustain larger animals. National protection for large areas would also be needed. This would definitely bring in tourism as has been shown by the sea eagle in Scotland, I would love to see this happen one day.

We preach to developing countries to protect their own wildlife such as tigers in India and rhino's in africa etc but how can we do so when we don't do it ourselve?

We should bring back the species we killed off such as beavers and lynx not only to restore the natural balance but to send a message to these countries that they should avoid the mistakes that we've already made.

A practical discussion on how to budget is incomplete without touching on debt.

It's convenient to pretend debt is a painless way to finance a lifestyle. But, this is a trap that was easy to fall in the boom days when the phrase credit crunch was unheard of.

But times are lean and debt spending is not an option. For one credit has dried up, it's just that much harder to get credit.

Last year we did the Calderdale-aire link. Transported the horse box to bingley and rode all the way back to Accrington stopping off at the pack horse pub for horsey bb.

We have done the MTL 3 times I am trying to find a map, north of mtl to settle loop hope someone can help.

The bridleways that have been done are fantastic, its a wonderful adventure just setting off and riding away over the hills and the majority of the time i can set off from my door.

Has soon as I get my map I'll be away over the hills via Wycoller Haworth and up that way... thankyou for all your hard work.

I totally agree with Ken Lumley.It has not been by chance that the environment has developed to the state that it is now.

Farmers themselves have determined their stocking rates in the interests of balanced farming systems which included maintaining sustainability. Had they not done so they would have given themselves real problems.

The importance of grazing animals on the hill or elsewhere should not be under estimated.Yes! Natural England have imposed artificial rules which will lead to degeneration and costly corrective measures.

I also am in the the USA. I've read many of James Herriot's books and used to watch "All Creatures Great and Small" on PBS. Sadly it is no longer shown.

I would very much enjoy viewing this new program showing the Dales, and the surrounding countryside. I always dreamed of coming to England for a visit, but realistically I feel I never will, so being to view it on the telly would be quite wonderful indeed.

Brilliant! I have just spent about 2 hours on separate trips to find three cows on our local Butterfly Conservation Meadow - nine acres of ancient woodland and old pasture.

We volunteers would love to hear about availability and cost of GPS for cows. Not only would it save time it would provide much needed data about the areas of choice and flora grazed.

I am sure the owners of the cattle would be relieved to know we could monitor their animals more secrurely and frequently, too.

I have to agree with the comments above. We run a pub and restaurant on the Welsh Borders and our community is always plagued by damned Ramblers.

Walkers are okay but it is the millitant attitudes of the hoards of Ramblers that blight the area. Gates left open,arguments with landowners,threatening people with those poles they like to carry and generally behaving as if they own the countryside when ironically most of them seem to drip out of large towns and cities like effluent from a leaking pipe.

We don't allow them in the pub as they even took the biscuit by using my car park to park thier vehicles, dissapear for 4 hours and return to drink just a coke and a bag of crisps. Fee paying customers stayed away as they thought the pub and restaurant was full due to the number of cars park. Ludicrous situation.

If I had my way, the Ramblers would be sent packing back into the Cities to walk in the parks instead.

Shame they didn't plan to get some fibre in the same trench.

We stayed in Hawes last week and were really taken with the wonderful views, friendly people and peace and tranquillity - except we couldn't believe the noise from the military aircraft, which at one point made my ears really uncomfortable when a couple of jets flew close overhead.

We often visit Snowdonia and thought it was bad enough there, but was much worse in the Dales. Is anything being done to look at the problem of military aircraft as well as civilian flights?

Having just come home from the 3-peaks challenge (Yorkshire peaks) the last field before Horton in Ribblesdale on the main footpath, with hundreds of walker going through it had nursing cows, calves and a bull. I was walking my dog and the cows attacked.

I was half way through the field before the cows and calves were spotted, I gave them a wide berth but it was still touch and go whether or not someone would have got hurt. The whole herd charged us and when I let the dog off the lead charged after her. It was a very very near miss. I agree farmers have to make a living but when a major footpath runs through your land they have to be selective about the stock in them.

While away for the day I spent:

£12 on camping fees to a farmer
£5 at the snack van at ribblesdale head
£3 at the snack bar at chapel-le-dale (run by a farmer)
£20 getting a meal and a drink in the pub at Horton
£8 on breakfast at the cafe at Horton

£1000's of pounds were brought into the local ecconomy by walkers doing the 3 peaks challenge this weekend. I understand it is your land, however when major footpaths such as the Pennine way and 3 peaks challenge go through fields, you have a duty of care not to put cows and calves in those fields. By duty of care I mean to the walkers and animals.

The herd of cows were frightened and frisky, injury could have just as easily happened to them, my dog, my friend or me. We were lucky this time.

I spent my £50 in the local area, without tourists how many Dales pubs and shops would remain open. Answer, none. The rural ecconomy just wouldn't support it. I like the Dales and don't mind spending my money there. However next time I'm going back to the Lakes, farmers don't do spiteful things like putting cows and calves on main footpaths there. On the whole they are friendly and all have their own take on getting money out of tourists.

I don't mind paying for the countryside, but not with my life because a farmer thinks it will be funny to scare tourists and at the same time endanger his/her own animals.

The "All Creatures" series was so well acted that I felt like the characters were people I actually knew. I have the series on tape and would watch an episode every Sunday night until it reached the end; and then I would start all over again.

I will second Stan's request to bring this program to American television.

I belive that humans have taken so much of the wild away from animals, we owe them the right to a part of britain, were they rule not us.

A National Park with no roads,houses or culling of any native british species, with wolves, bears and all of the original species kept safe within the boundries.

Clearly set boundries with warning signs of the dangers, but once inside the boundries you are at the merci of nature and the animals, a wild Britain with no human opression. A Britain before man took over.

This event is very important, not only to the poetry pundits but also for literacy and up and coming poets.

Writers must channel their inspirations of their times. The weight of such events falls on the collective followup that happens.

Be prepared to augment your efforts with readings, book launches, and other writer's craft methodologies.

I think that this is a fantastic idea and one that will be enjoyed by all who love the Dales.

As a writer and photographer i have been inspired to look further into the history of this wonderful place and this new group can surely enhance this for all.

If the Yellowstone volcanic caldera erupts any day now (see August 2009 National Geographic), the resulting "nuclear winter" will kill millions, if not billions, so leave well alone.

After all the natural climate of this planet is NO ice caps. They are going to melt sooner or later with or without man's intervention, so be prepared and move to over 300 feet above sea level.

Actually that paper shows no negative effects of organic management on seed-eating farmland birds, while farmland bird abundance is supported by organic farming, and 2 species in particular (starling and greenfinch) are significantly benefitting.

Despite what DEFRA and its pet sectors (pesticides and biotech) would be keen to see, the paper brings no evidence of negative effects of organic farming on farmland birds.

I get birds in my garden that i have no idea what they are.

As for wood pigeons i love them we also get the collared ones.

I put plenty of food out for all. As for the robin we moved here in 1992 & we have always had 2 in the garden & they do not change colour.

I feed them wild bird seed,peanuts and save all my fat & they get that plus bread,cake you name it they get it.

It seems that - incredibly - even the 'New Scientist' is hedging its bets.

Click to view article

This year or next, we are due a winter of the quality of 1947 or 1963.

The cycle of approximately 65 years, which gave us the hottest year of the Twentieth Century as 1934, and the second hottest as 1998 will equally give us similarly spaced winters.

We are due for a reversion to the climate we experienced in the 1940s and 1950s, mostly due to Atlantic and Pacific oscillations, superimposed over a gradually rising trend that will eventually - in a few tens of thousands of years, perhaps - reach the interglacial average, somewhere around ten to fifteen degrees higher than we experience at the moment. Meanwhile, sundry unpredictable factors such as cloud nucleation caused by cosmic rays will overlay the whole picture.

The idea that we humans can have any significant influence on a system as vast as that which controls the Earth's climate is hubris of the highest order, and this will, in my opinion, become very obvious quite soon - already at least one of the major organisations that makes a living out of dire predictions of catastrophic Climate Change has observed that there will be a hiatus of around thirty years of cooling before the warming trend resumes, tying in rather nicely with the prediction in my first paragraph.

Oh, and by the way, there is essentially no difference whatsoever between climate and weather, anyone who believes otherwise needs to acquaint themselves with the work of Lorentz, Mandelbrot and the other mathematicians who revealed the intricacies of non-linear dynamics, AKA Chaos Theory.

The rats are deserting the sinking AGW ship, and all the computer simulations in the World will not influence the opinion of a hawthorn tree.

The deceased category is rather restricted - surprising to see that Kit Calvert doesn't feature in the list. Also intrigued as to why voting suspended for Alan Bennett, or wasn't Leeds-born Dales enough for them?

Should be open to keep lancashire and yorkshire together as part of north of england line from coast to coast

How are we going to be rid of this deadly plant if there is no law to make landowners remove it?

It is sooooo prolific in this year (2009) have never, ever seen as much before.

Let's not miss the point. What we call anything is of little use, other than to be able to pinpoint what we are referring to, unless your need is scientific, mathematical or technical and therefore needs to be technically descriptive.

What is crucial is managing the moor intelligently (keeping bracken under control, putting in dedicated cycle paths for mountain bikers, burning professionally heather etc.) to protect a habitat that is precious.

Around three quarters of the WORLD'S heather moorland is in the UK. In addition to the inestimable value to Homo sapiens, the moor supports bird species such as Red Grouse, Hen Harrier, Merlin, Golden Plover, Curlew, Sky Lark, Meadow Pipit, Whinchat, ..... and now Red Kites are moving in.

Given the choice, I would far prefer a windfarm in my back yard than either a nuclear or greenhouse gas emitting monstrosity. Of course, the inevitable lust for evermore energy requirements can be mitigated by us as a nation, by cutting down and responsible usage.

Banning all pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers is not only the right thing to do, but a necessary thing to do for both farmer and public. As a farmer, I can testify that eliminating their use increases farm profits and would be glad to support any campaign to eliminate their use, and provide free advice to any farmer who would want to abandon their use.

The amount of bracken on the moor is getting out of hand. While my wife and I were walking on the moor bracken 6ft high blocked some of the paths.

It is good that the moor is now going to be managed this can only help the environment, well done.

One day English people will wake up and realise that the greatest threat to England is the United Kingdom. Cumbria County Council rejected planning permission for a huge wind farm at Robin's Rigg in the Solway Firth (estuary). The Scots-led UK Government's response was to move the Anglo-Scottish border south, to put the decision making in the hands of the Scottish Parliament, which it duly did.

Now there is to be a second development off the Cumbrian coast within sight of Whitehaven. All controlled by Scots, for Scottish profit. England will then pay Scotland for carbon trade-off, in addition to buying electricity made in what once England, from Scots. With all the jobs pouring out of England into Scotland the Barnett Formula is just a drop in the ocean economic drowning England.

Gordon Brown was elected by no-one in England, but he plans to have 3 million houses built in England. He has no say in his own country, Scotland, because the Scottish Parliament manages planning and development in Scotland.

England needs its own parliament to focus on England, arguably the oldest nation in Europe. The ONLY reason UK MPs at Westminster oppose an English Parliament is because it would put them all out of a job, just as the Scottish Parliament did for them in Scotland. We wouldn't need them, and for all the good they have done England since devolution, we may as well make them redundant.

If the Scots can't handle the English being democratically equal with them, then perhaps the notion of the United Kingdom needs revisiting. We English must now assert our own sovereignty and desist being pleasant to those who give every impression of hating us.

This government has always had a phoney majority in England because of the unanswered West Lothian Question. Strip away non English MP's voting rights and you will find New Labour with a very slim majority and unable to get legislation through.

New Labour hate England, why not hate them back and call for an English Parliament, send Gordon homewards to think again?

Like many people we shop and support our local town, in our case Settle. Last week however we were harrassed by a parking attendant who was ticketing cars parked on the roads around the market square. We were there while dashing in and out of the shops.

Both that, the fact that all the council carparks are pay only and Craven have closed many of the public toilets, the authorities seem to be going out of their way to make market towns un-popular.

I am now in my mid-thirties. Maybe i'm getting old, but if I never went on a sunny holiday again and went to the Dales every year, i'd be a happy man!

It would appear that little change has taken place since this report. I operate a small business selling cricket books and memorabilia all over the world on the internet and have done so for a number of years. Unfortunately the connection here continues to be intermediate.

Surely BT should come forward with an update. When are things going to improve?

Too little too late, as usual. Once a Pub or Shop is closed and re-developed (into affordable housing?)it's gone forever. Fill the villages with affordable housing and all you get is a bigger village without facilities! Common sense is dying out, along with our villages.

IN HIS column of June 12, John Sheard said the things were getting better in the countryside despite eight rules of Labour rule. In this, he was part right, part wrong.

In the past few months, hill farmers have in fact benefitted greatly because the prices paid for lambs at auction has more than doubled since last year, which is very welcome. But this came about not as a result of government policy but by sheer fluke.

The reason for it is the fall in the value of the pound against the euro, which had stimulated a huge increase in demand for British lamb in the rest of the EU, because buyers with euros to spend get much better value for their money. Although we upland farmers are benefitting, this can hardly be put down as a triumph for Labour policy.

In the meantime, the problems of closing post offices, shops, pubs and village schools continue, made worse by Government ;policy. They talk all the time of providing more affordable housing for low-paid locals in country areas, but when shall we see any action? John is on the button, however, when he says that country folk are more accustomed to dealing with hard times than people in the towns and cities. With this, I heartily agree.

You seem to have forgotten to mention that the original TROs were imposed by the Access Committee against the wishes of the YDNP's own recommendations. You also fail to note that Judge Behrens held that the Park Authority had not conducted the necessary degree of balancing of movement of traffic, and acted irrationally when moving to exclude recreational motor vehicles from 'green lanes' in the National Park.

Biased?

This is a great project. I have been advocating this approach for years. Rather than looking to Nuclear, I think the government should investment more in this form of power generation, even to building more mills. Is this mill producing power now?

I don't think Gordon Brown and his apparatchiks appreciate that although we can do without bankers, EU kleptocrats and all the other pernicious parasites with which they surround themselves, we can't do without farmers.

Incredible as it may seem, they really are that deluded.

I have just seen an animal which looked just like an otter crossing the A59 near the end of Broughton Road Skipton. It was not a mink, which are smaller and black, it was the colour of an otter and it ran like an otter but I only caught a glimpse as I was driving along.

You are right about the urgent need for new nuclear build though it is a politically sensitive decision for obvious reasons. However, there is a place for wind, or indeed sea generation to contribute. You are being disengenuous to imply that wind power is ineffective just because it was still outside your house on a particular day! You don't have a power station outside either -and even if you did it may be inoperative for days at a time for maintenance as is the case with our ageing, unreliable fleet. Yet you still get pwoer from the national grid., don't you? I am no meteorolgist but I feel safe in guaranteeing that it was windy in many other parts of the country when your back garden was still!

The "eye-sore" view of turbines is not shared by all and is arguable but I'll grant you that it would be better if nothing was there. Where I do take issue with that "anti" argument is that it conveniently ignores the amount of existing man-made damage to the views with ugly walls, fences, farm buildings, roads, pylons, orange-jacketed hikers ( a bit harsh perhaps!) etc with which you've come to terms simply because they've been there for so long.

I would like to see the nation make greater use of city and sub-prime locations (e.g. alongside motorways) for multiple smaller scale wind turbines that would not be so intrusive to the "unspoilt" landscape.

In summary: yes we need nuclear rather than new CCGT gas power stations, there is a place for wind, sea and solar renewables as part of a sensibly diverse portfolio of generation.

Congratulations on a fine fact based report. I fear many people have been brainwashed by the proponents of wind power. They seem obviously green and cuddly compared with that nasty frightening nuclear power. But as is often the case the reality is rather different. The rot started with Mrs Thatchers vision of a future were private enterprise would provide all we require but she deliberately overlooked the greed factor so clearly visible today. We need to tread a path between private greed and public inefficinecy. But what will not get us out of the current hole is wind power. It has a place for remote farms etc with diesel backup or small scale hydro schemes. But not as a base load supply. The choice is between coal,oil,gas or nuclear, guess which is the best and "greenest" altenative.

The safety record of the nuclear industry would stand comparison with anyone. Look at facts not the extravagant reporting in the national press whose editors seem to have an agenda.

It may be true that the UK's nuclear power plants' annual production of nuclear waste would fit in a London cab; the necessary shielding, if that cab were to sit in a London street, certainly would not.

And with that shielding, it could only sit; much of its now enormous weight would be transferred to the pavement by its floor pan, not its wheels. If the motor were powerful enough, it could make those wheels scrabble ineffectually.

One can better understand the stuff by learning, not how heavy it is, nor how small a box it can fit in, but how radioactive it is. 57 years ago, in USAEC Report ANL-4790, American researchers produced a highly accurate, although not altogether simple, formula that lets one calculate how many watts of long-delayed radioactivity can build up when a given amount of nuclear power operates for an infinite time.

What builds up after a long but finite time is almost exactly the same: artificially radioactive atoms in a waste cache emit their individual bursts of radiation, and become nonradioactive, almost as fast as the continuing arrival of new waste replaces them.

Cutting to the chase: ten years downstream of a nuclear power industry that makes 'X' watts, the radioactivity cannot exceed 0.0003 'X' watts, no matter how long the industry continues. And with uranium being found for a penny a barrel-oil-equivalent, no-one doubts it will continue for a very long time. Unfelt doubts are expressed, and money changes hands.

Knowing this, one can compare how much radioactivity would, in the limit, be buried in Britain's top kilometre by man, and how much has been put there by nature. This comparison, of course, shows that nuclear waste has never been a real problem.

It can make Britain's terrain radioactive only in the sense that a baby peeing in the ocean can make it salt. But everyone has always known this. Everyone who has said, with the air of someone making a very telling point, "But what about the waste", has known that the question was a lie.

If such a person has attended to the preceding five paragraphs, he or she has gained understanding, not of his or her prior mendacity -- no news there -- but of exactly what was wrong.

Well John, we're going to have to get used to real winters again for the next decade or three, in my opinion. So get the rust brushed off your snow chains.

I think the Global Warming has pretty much shot its bolt, peaked in 1998 and now going down fast it seems, just like the Ice Age panic that preceded it (and the Global Warming scare that preceded that, and the Global Cooling that preceded that.... and so on).

What short memories we appear to have.

Read the groundbreaking book, The Diet Delusion, by prize-winning journalist, Gary Taubes – you'll be shocked at the misinformation and lies we've been told about 'healthy eating' simply because the facts were hidden or the statistics were skewed. You can buy it from amazon, it is a complete revelation! Published in the UK by Vermilion, ISBN 978-0-09-189141-1 Taubes is the only print journalist to have won the National Association of Science Writer's prestigious Science-in-Society award three times.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I own 3 horses, I have a little trailer for taking them out and about as I cannot afford to get a lorry, therefore I drive a '98 landrover discovery but I also use it as my every day car as I can't afford to run 2 vehicles. now it may be that I can't even afford this because of the 'chelsea tractor' fad. Why these people in london need such big cars when they have a great public transport system, and lets face it your hardly going to be travelling at high speeds inner-city so what is the point?

I too have a sparrow hawk visiting the garden.This is the second year, seen more often in the winter months.The other birds seem to sense when it is about and don't visit though a blackbird and a pigeon weren't so lucky.Thankyou for the tips on putting food in the hedges.

The mention of the 'Constable'; the site had their own Police to stop fights etc. Many of the men lived in types of Caravans on site. When the navies completed the railways the went in the building of docks and steel works or mines.

As a teacher for 38 years one of the main reasons for closing schools is fear of litigation. A child getting into difficulties walking on the way home from school or having to be kept at school overnight because there was no transport would of course be totally traumatised and the parents would have no choice but to sue the school for all they could get. (Just one more way in which this country faces America rather than Europe.) When my school had to be closed it wasn't the decision of the school, well it was in the end, it was the bus companies who said 'we can't guarentee to get children home in bad weather'. Of course here in the South we are even softer than 'up north' so this is a 'double whammy'. And the roads are a darn sight more crowded too.

We have a flock maybe 20 - 30 birds outside 12 dec in woodburn gardens dalkieth just outside edinburgh they are eating red berries and have been here for about a week.

Yes, I've noticed far fewer starlings coming to my bird table - not a scientific survey I know but it wasn't so very long ago they were almost a pest. The RSPB pesticide theory is rubbish, round here it's forestry, sheep, shooting and pony paddocks. Cats, though, appear to have become more numerous than the rats they don't catch.

I saw 12 of these birds in the tree in my garden this afternoon. It was their song that attracted me at first and when I ventured outside, saw them right at the top of the tree. They didn't come down to feed and flew off moments later, but I haven't seen them before, so it was lovely to see them today!

2 weeks ago as I was making my way down from Penn Hill I spotted this huge bird eating a rabbit..It was very large too big for a kestral etc. Any idea what types of birds fly around the Penn Hill area?

Its all part of the 'you can't touch me' mentality I believe. If you see Kids throwing rubbish away you cannot challenge them.Pudsey is a disgrace as are many of our Towns and Villages. Leeds City council talks the talk, but it don't walk the walk. Ironically it takes an American to take up challenge of trying to tidy britain up - Best of Luck Mr Bryson. We need a big name to help get something done about it.

I, and many people I know, think that wind turbines are elegant and beautiful, and very much needed. The NIMBY crowd appear to have no consideration whatsoever for the damage their activities have already had on the environment, and are unwilling to accept new technologies which can begin to mitigate against the damage they have done to this planet. Shame on them.

My experience of the Hunting Act is entirely negative. Since my use of dogs to flush out deer in my woods was banned three and a half years ago I have just carried on in blatant disregard of the law. I've written to the police to tell them when and where I break the Hunting Act and they just let me carry on.

Under the Hunting Act if I shot the deer once flushed then my activities would be legal. As I refuse to shoot them they are illegal.

The police know full well this law is absurd.

My means of controlling deer with dogs is welfare friendly and should not be illegal.

'Hunting in England and Wales is a very emotive subject' says ACPO.

Excuse me ACC Collins but hunting is illegal. Do you say 'burglary is emotive' or any other CRIME??

Hunting is a crime and should be policed like any other.

The reason we have this in the first place is because some fool thought it looked nice, now the want to release some BUG that will kill it. This Bug will probably run riot and kill more than it is suppose to, we lost the Elm in this country to some little creepy crawly. You can not release these things on the hope they will only kill the Knotweed.

I have a cavalier king charles spaniel 2 1/2 years old who was diagonosed with mitral heart valve disease 1/2 a year ago. I am concerned for his future. I am also on the lookout for syringomyelia after watching pedigree dogs exposed. It is very worrying.

The real problrm here is not the chippie but the litter louts that discard everything they dont need wherever they happen to be. Fish and Chip packaging is not litter until its thrown away.

Local councils and the national government spend millions on regulating the business' of chippies and other types of takeaways but a disproportionately small amount on bringing litter louts to book. It's much easier to penalise the fish frier who is identifible rather than the people who discard their rubbish.

Many people today dont care about despoiling their streets and countryside. Groups of youngsters in particular seem to feel it is uncool to walk 10 yards to a litter bin they would be ridiculed by their mates. If you think these are the rantings of an intolerant anti teenager just go and stand around one of the numerous chippies that are located on a parades of shops. Most nights you will see groups of youths throwing their litter on the floor. You wont see any policemen, community officers or litter wardens handing out cautions or fines. Yet the chippie owner is forced by law to clean up outside his shop or face the wrath of the law.

I was a fish frier during the time when fish and chips were wrapped in newspaper and greaseproof paper. We were prevented from doing that by the Environmental Health Departments and quite rightly so because there were hygiene issues. Until packaging designers come up with a biodegrable packaging that is cheap and able to keep the product hot, chippies dont have much option but to use polystyrene trays.

Wind energy developers think they can buy off communities and then destroy our beautiful countryside. Some communities have accepted the payment; many have not. How much are pristine landscapes worth? They are beyond price and it's time we sent that message to those who would industrialise our landscapes.

This is wonderful news, and thank you to the dedication of Mr Kemp and managers of the land. To think that somebody has taken all of that time and effort to help out native red squirrel be safe from the greys is wonderful. Unfortunately where I am there are only grey now. I shall be making a journey to see our lovely reds very soon.

Well done to the people of Malham for cherishing and protecting their peregrines. Birds of prey are good for tourism and the economy and we all need to help stop the illegal persecution of these magnificent birds. And well done to the RSPB!

I think this ban on vehicles is outrageous. I am a senior manager at a local company and I own a 1949 Land Rover. I like to take it for a drive along nice county lanes at weekends and I cant believe that my RIGHT to do this has been TAKEN from me. I am not some gun hoe 4x4er and my vehicle does no damage if driven sensibly. It has been my experience that horse riders do FAR MORE DAMAGE. It is also my view that by closing the majority of lanes, you will put added pressure on the few that remain open. I will be doing my up most to ensure that no further lanes are closed and I will be writing to my MP.

As a parent of a 12 year old boy with ASD, and a teacher in adult education for learning Disabilities & Autism Awareness I think this is a simple but highly effective tool in ensuring that officers are aware of a conditon which underpins some very complex and often challenging behaviour. The anxiety and social confusion aswell as language processing and sensory integration problems that are encompassed by ASD's means situations can quicky escalate to dangerous proportions if not handled sensitively and with a degree of basic knowledge in ASD's i.e. keeping language simple and concrete, keeping physical contact minimal , awareness of auditory and visual hypersensitivity etc... Often people with ASD's are too overwhelmed to explain they have autism, the card is a concrete communication tool.

I would go even further to suggest that officers are equipped with a similar card to remind them of the strategies they should be adopting in such a situation and possibly to carry supporting picture communication cards to assist them in dealing with adults with a range of learning disabilities I also suggest soliciting the thoughts from adults with ASD's possibly by posting a question on one of the internet forums such as www.auties.org.

The article is simplistic & inaccurate. There has actually been a high rate of residential development inside the National Park over the last few years, as well as outside. The fact that house prices have still rocketed shows that its not the answer. What is needed is not more open market houses but more affordable homes, targeted to meet local community needs.

I think the card is a great idea. However, the first question that comes to mind is how will the child/person with Autism carry the card with them. My grandson with Autism wants no tags or extras of any sort on his clothes--let alone taking all his clothes off conintually because evidently the "sensory" issue of the clothes on his skin upsets him.

His mother has suggested taking a felt pen and writing on the inside of his forearm his name, telephone number(s), etc., when they would be going somewhere in a crowd where he might possibly get away from them.

Any feedback on how to "attach" your card to the person with Autism?

Thank you so much for your interesting article about sheep farming in the Dales. I live in Pokesdown near Boscombe part of Bournemouth and love to hand knit with wool. All our knitting shops have closed down, the Post Office sells yarn but not real wool. When I asked the last knitting shop, why she was closing, she said, 'council tax and overheads of trying to run a shop.' So for the knitter it is buying online and paying very heavy P&P. I am sorry to say that some firms over charge and this can put people off buying on the internet. Good wool shops are very hard to find and in its place comes the cheap yarn. Most people prefer wool,I only hope that sheep farming picks up and we can see shops full of real wool again.

“Without this licence it is a criminal offence that could result in a maximum fine of £5,000 or six months in prison.”

Now wouldn't it be lovely if other minor crimes where treated with such enthusiasm.
Let's see,

Littering, cycling on pavements, shoplifting, burglary, foul language, under-age smoking, under-age drinking, under-age sex.... where does one stop, crime is now the norm rather than the exception.

I would certainly do without a few black-headed gulls, rooks, starlings, cormorants, for a bit more enthusiasm for proper crime.

Mind you, I suppose that would need a "Craven Litter Crime Officer" and a "Craven Cycling Crime Officer" and a "Craven Shoplifting Crime Officer" and a "Craven Burglary Crime Officer" and a "Craven Foul Language Crime Officer" and a "Craven under-age smoking Crime Officer" and a "Craven under-age drinking Crime Officer" and a "Craven under-age Sex Crime Officer" and a "Craven Those Who Can't Afford To Pay Their Rates Crime Officer"

Having visited the Dales in the fall of 1997, my wife and I were suprised by a few things. First we noticed that there were no screens on the windows of our B&B in Thirsk. Second, as we walked around there seemed to be very few insects of any kind. And third we also noticed that there were few birds around. As is pointed out in your article, they are all connected. Good to see that something is being done to correct this. Oh, and by the way we fell in love with the Dales, and for all of these years have kept up our subscription to the Dalesman. Great story, keep it up!

Ever thought of blaming the money grabbing pub companies (more like real estate companies) such as Enterprise and Punch for the demise of the pub? Many of which were created as a result of the last Tory government's reform of the pub industry. We can't blame out current govt for people wanting to drink less because as a whole we are becoming heathier. We also can't blame the govt for bad weather resulting in the increase in raw materials. And no, I'm not a Labour supporter, I just believe in looking at all angles.

My wife and I are totally in agreement with Bill Bryson, we have a beauty business in Urmston town centre and due to an increasing number of take aways and many local bars opening we have seen a vast increase in litter and have to clean up our immediate area of take away polystyrene trays and cups almost every morning as well as beer cans and food waste thrown onto the pavement. Not long ago a car pulled up on Stretford Road, the contents of the waste bin and cigarette tray empied out on the grass verge before it quickly sped off in the opposite direction - What kind of mentality have these people got?

We have also been dismayed at finding rubbish when cycling or walking in the countryside in the North West in general which todays programme highlighted. When out cycling near Preston Marina we think a couple stopped their car purposely by the wall of the river bank to fly tip from the boot of their car (they were acting very suspiciously opening the boot then closing it very quickly when we passed by, continually looking at us until we had gone out of sight) but we had our little grandson with us and had to get back home so could not wait around to check this out. I really do hope the government become much more proactive to stop litter of all kinds spoiling Britain - but, however great the laws they will never be effective if they are never used!

Even though I am from the Midlands we have been getting the same problem but fortunately the other way round. The previous weekend the forecast was set for heavy showers in the afternoon but we only had light showers. How can the weather predictions be so wrong?! In light of the weather reports I had made no plans and from what we had I could have done many a thing! It has been a disappointing summer in terms of the weather and I have heard a rumour it is set to continue!

It is heartbreaking to see the amounts of litter being dropped/left/thrown/dumped in establishments, towns and the countryside of Great Britain. I have noticed that when on a visit to the cinema people will walk away from where they have been sitting and leave drinks cups, bottles, popcorn tubs and any other rubbish behind them. This is indicative of behaviour elswhere.Why should anyone have to clear up after them? What is so difficult about disposing of these items in the litter bins always provided at such venues?

It is time sanctions were enforced more stringently when litter is dropped on the street.

I have just spent about 35 minutes composing a response to these self-congratulatory ramblings which exclude any reference to local satisfaction but I should have realised earlier that this is for the digestion of the tourists, the majority of whom take not one blind bit of notice of their beautiful surroundings. I therefore scrubbed it. To paraphrase someone even more notorious, residents of the Yorkshire Dales National Park are but an inconvenient truth.

Not only would the cost of building the ecotowns far, far exceed the cost of renovating the 280,000 existing houses now vacant in major UK cities, the carbon emissions from building a house far exceed that from repairing one. Not only that, but unemployment in these rural areas is often so high that many prospective ecotown dwellers may not be able to find work in the area (and if they are not permitted cars, as the government proposes, their lives will be very difficult indeed). Clearly, this so-called green initiative, and Ms. Flint's supposed concern for the poor, are really just the cover for the government to make those 'hundreds of millions of pounds profit' you cite in your article. It truly is contemptible.

I think that there is not enough rural affordable housing in the Harrogate District - and that which is available is very unattractive. Harrogate Borough Council will not allow development/conversions as most of the area I live in is AONB, yet they allow horrible buildings to be erected (such as those affordable homes at Fewston). I suggest they think again about ANY building/conversions in the countryside, as at the moment there is none whatsoever, affordable or not. I would suggest that barn conversions or such like within the AONB or countryside should be approved BUT to solve the problem put a condition on the property that the homes must be occupied by local people. Instead of taking greenfield sites and building horrible new buildings.

This story has made me relive my childhood, and what a happy childhood it was, how i wish the children of today could or would want nothing more than stickle back fishing and newting, great fun, then off for a picnic watching the butterflies and dragonflies bliss, yes i say preserve as much of our countryside and wildlife and learn from Mother nature the beauty of life.

My father served in the Royal Navy during WWII - I wanted to join when I was a young girl (living in Birkenhead Merseyside)but didn't achieve my dream as my parents would not let me take my plan further. However, I have always been deeply proud of my father, other relatives and ALL men and women who played their part, especially those from 'home'. As I have grown older I have taken up writing, and my interest in the war years and its people has come to mean a great deal more to me as I read about their bravery.

My view of the British government throughout post-war years in not honouring ALL who served in one way or another during WWII is that they in fact have 'dishonoured' them, and each serving party should be ashamed. The government constantly 'honours' people,some of whom are worthy others not so, but to be blind to the bravery of each and every group of men and women who gave up their 'normal' life to serve their country by conscription or as volunteers, is a disgrace and should be rectified NOW whilst some at least are still with us. It's the people who put the government in power and pay the salary of ministers through taxes, so there is no reason why they should be ignored by the few who take power - or maybe that's the problem - power - as then they forget they too belong to the people and should be proud to honour those who fought for them.

People will always smoke it and it has to come from somewhere...outlawing the market just puts it in the hands of outlaws! Under alcohol prohibition in the USA the market shifted from beer to whisky as more concentrated products are more profitable and attract lower sentences. Once the drug (alcohol) was relegalised this was reversed, with a switch to milder concentrations (beer) a fall in other crimes/violence and a double windfall for the taxpayer: more taxes in, less police/court/prison spending.

Pity the police can't protect us from the epidemic of drunkeness that afflicts our town centres every weekend. Cannabis is the soft option when it comes to policing. How about swooping on the cocaine and crack that is destroying out nations youth.

It is madness to compare the ownership of 4x4's for those people living in rural communities, with those who live in towns - especially London and the suburbs - when they only own a 4x4 as a 'fashion statement'.

I am a volunteer in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and have often found my 4x4 vital in order to reach an isolated spot to do a walling job or something similar. Before my retirement it also enabled me to get to work through heavy snow or floods, when colleagues were unable to get into the office under the same conditions.

I am on a small pension and I am finding the current cost of the road tax, together with the price of today's fuel, crippling. I have only ever used my car when absolutely necessary, and the constant financial pressures put to bear by our Labour government is unacceptable in my eyes. The sooner they are out the better, especially as many of those who hold or have held senior governmental positions never seem to set a good example.

I live in a rural area of Provence, France soon to become a National Park and I own a 4x4, not for professional reasons, simply for the joy of driving off-road along mountainous tracks. France abolished road tax for ALL private vehicles in the year 2000 - we pay NOTHING except for tolls on our Motorway network. I consider the road tax payable in the UK to be scandalous, even before these proposed increases come into effect and especially that massive increase on 4x4 vehicles needed by farmers and others for their livelihood. Good luck with your campaign.

Super work interpreting the "Herriot" stories. I'm an addict in the US, because I miss the Britain in which I grew up. Our values were so pristine, so fragile, they seem almost absurd now. And yet, so decent, so irretrievable. Thank you.

I feel that yet another freedom has been removed, but what else can we expect in this climate of taxing and banning the motorist? Done responsibly, driving along green lanes is enjoyable and can be enjoyed by families. Responsible use should be encouraged, rather than banning it for everyone. Walkers have enough routes to themselves already without taking over all the BOATS too. Surely the national park should encourage diverse uses of it's land.

I completely agree with you John. The climate changes, it always has it always will. The notion that there is a scientific concensus re man-made global warming is simply not true. The science is not settled by a long shot. New research and new climate data is becoming available all the time. Personaly I think were in for a spot of cooling, although I hope I'm wrong. Warmth is a lot easier to cope with than cold.

If global warming has ceased, how come records were still being broken in 2007?

The World Meteorological Organization reports global land surface temperatures in January and April 2007 were the warmest since such data began to be recorded in 1880; 1.89°C warmer than average for January and 1.37°C warmer than average for April. In 2007 many European countries had their warmest January on record. January temperatures in The Netherlands were the highest since measurements were first taken in 1706. January France saw above average Jan. temperatures (+2.3°C) for the whole country; the sixth warmest January since the start of the 20th Century and just 0.3 °C less than 2006. England had the warmest April in 348 years of record-keeping there, breaking the record set in 1865 by more than 0.6°C. Then England had its wettest the wettest May to July period since records began in 1766, due to a low jet stream over NW Europe. Spring 2007 also featured the highest temperatures ever recorded by the Swiss Weather Service.

Temperature records for summer heat were broken in south-eastern Europe (Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece) in June and July. On 23 July, temperatures reached 45°C in Bulgaria, setting a new record.

In Australia 2007 was the warmest year on record in the Murray Darling Basin and South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. The Australian annual mean temperature for 2007 was 6th warmest on record (0.67°C above normal). There was intense heat wave that engulfed western and central Russia in May, breaking several temperature records. In Moscow, temperatures on the 28th reached 32.8°C, the highest temperature recorded in May since 1891. (1890/91 saw a very intense El Nino, drought and famine killed millions worldwide, including 5m in the Ukraine.) In the U.S.A in August more than 100 all-time temperature records were tied or broken either for the highest reading or the warmest low temperature at night. A further 8,000 new heat records were set or tied for specific August dates.

Japan in 06/07 had one of the warmest winters on record and downtown Tokyo went without snow for the first time in 130 years; thermometers in August reached 40.9°C, the highest temperature ever recorded in Japan.

An extreme heat wave affected the South Asian countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and the People's Republic of China. The Pakistani meteorological department registered a new record maximum temperature of 52 °C.

The Arctic continued to warm, leading to the opening of the Canadian Northwest Passage for the first time in recorded history. On Aug. 17, 2007 the National Snow and Ice Data Centre reported there was less sea ice in the Arctic than since records began.

There was a short El Nino beginning in summer 2006 but it had faded to neutral conditions by Feb `07; so that can’t be credited for the above. A La Nina formed in Sept. 07, but La Nina’s usually bring cooler temperatures.

This is a fairly strong La Nina at present [strongest since 1988/89] that is expected to last for a few months yet. And no-one has said we would stop having seasons. The severe conditions this winter in regions across the world (The return of flooding to England this winter, heavy flooding in West Africa and the heavy snowfall in China and the NW USA and northern Great Lakes) are due to La Nina's influence, pushing air streams and atmospheric bodies of moisture around and are consistent with past La Ninas.

Let’s not forget that Lord Lawson is a politician [and so probably has an agenda] but I doubt he spends much time really looking into meteorological records.

Although, as you can see, I do not live in the affected area, I do visit it to enjoy those features for which it is justly famous. That does not include wind turbines, although we notice that they're bginning to spread like a rash. Just how tall are the actual machines being proposed for East Marton, how many are planned to be installed and what is their power output?

Currently, the largest turbines being designed are said to be for offshore use and even they generate a modest 5 Megawatts. Each is 163 meters overall height and has a blade diameter of 100 meters. That's somewhat taller than Blackpool Tower and a lot wider, and it would take 132 of them to replace just one of the six generating sets at Drax power station. That's assuming that they were all working to maximunm output all the time and a quick observation of existing wind farms shows that this never seems to happen. Of course, 2 megawatt machines are a lot smaller but it doesn't require Einstein to work out that you need two and a half times as many of them.

I recently met an ex vice president of an American company that made and sold wind turbines and even he says that their overall efficiencey does not exceed 10%.

The thought of these things spreading on shore in the Dales and other 'suitably windy' places in numbers sufficient to make a significant impact on our energy needs is truly appalling.

Incredible that these huge turbines are being allowed to spoil such an outstandingly beautiful landscape. I can only hope that the test mast's findings show that the wind currents are not suitable. I would like to know why our Council even considered this option without consultation with the affected Parish Councils. Are they all too busy with the new Skipton Homeloan HQ and JN Bentleys proposals?

Having been "caching" for about a year , I can thoroughly endorse what the YDNPA are doing. Its a fantastic way to get people to see unknown bits of areas they may think they are already familiar with. Here in Malham "Dales Diva" has set up a fantastic Multicache, gathering clues by wandering round the back lanes of the village before leading you to the final cache site. Just around Malham are enough caches prepared by other Geocachers to keep a visitor busy for at least 2 or 3 days if he or she wanted to "bag" them all at once.

shhh, don't tell everyone about cache hunting... a fantastic hobby for getting you to places in the Dales you may not otherwise consider - I've lived in the Dales over ten years yet have discovered more places in the past year than the previous nine. Just pop your postcode into www.geochaching.com - you may be surprised just how many treasure boxes there are around where you live...

We are coing to Ilkley in June and are already big into caching (Grizzly Pair) we love the way the National Park is spreading the word especially encouraging families to take up this wonderful hobby. We we aim to pick about 80 - 90 caches in our weeks holiday. Well done to YDNPA.

Great to see geocaching is being uysed in a positive way to encourage visitors to areas and get some fresh air! thanks for including this.

What a great idea. I now live in Souith Africa but have spent many happy weeks hiking the Yorkshire Dales. I spend a lot of time geocaching in RSA and it's wonderful way to get to places I otherwise wouldn't see. Perhaps it's sad that in the modern day we need an excuse or at least a good reason to get off our butts and make the effort to see some of the most beautiful places on earth. In my opinion the more people who can experience the majesty of the Dales as I have the better and if it takes geocaching to achieve that then so be it.

Well done on a great initiative; I will suggest it to the Parks Board in South Africa.

Utter insanity.

As far as I know, the only country to create biofuels with a significant carbon footprint advantage is Brazil, with its sugar cane to ethanol plant giving a carbon saving of around 30%. That is not allowing for the rain forests that are being cut down to grow the sugar cane, of course.

Biofuel from grain offers much less advantage, often actually using more fossil fuel to produce it than it yields. Of course, the new market for grain puts the price up, as no-one is actually growing more grain to fuel the new demand, which means that those who were struggling to pay for their basic sustenance will quite likely goto the wall.

All as a result of a bizarre apocapalyptic mega-cult, spawned a toxic mixture of control freak tax-and-spend governments, guilt tripping Western pseudo-intellectuals, born-again Commie agitprop retarded adolescents and a plethora of other malcontents and heart-on-sleeve types brilliantly illustrating the old adage about the road to Hell being paved with "good" intentions.

Congratulations, Greenies, you may well have helped solve the overpopulation problem.

John, have you noticed that, since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, all the supporters of Socialism have transferred their allegiance to the new religion of Malign Anthropogenic Global Warming, to give it its full title?

And isn't it curious that the line between the supporters and the opponents of this new cult is almost exactly on the old Left/Right lines, which is somewhat intriguing, seeing as it is a scientific matter, and even oil company executives and their ilk have families and little grandchildren, so having just as much a stake in the future as some Sociology lecturer at the University of Cleckhuddersfax Polytech, and are probably much better informed to boot?

This is why the Global Warming aficionados are commonly referred to as Watermelons, due to being green on the outside and red on the inside.

I think you're confusing issues here, the proper disposing of batteries is more about pollution control. Batteries contain really nasty chemicals such as heavy metals, these leach into ground water and in only moderate quantities affect the entire food chain. As a keen fisherman battery re-cycling is one thing you really should be in favour of.

The global cooling is an El-Nina event (as opposed to El Nino) so its effects are predicted and modelled. I'm afraid it gives us only a few years off in the general trend of global warming

In addition to the economics and adverse impact on the landscape does anyone consider the health risk poised by windmills. They do generate considerable dioxin (inherant with any electric generation process) which due to their generators being elevated is spread much more effectively than any other power generation method. There should be dioxin monitoring of wind turbines especially since ounce for ounce dioxin is far more toxic than nuclear radiation.

Is it time the shops that supplied the alcohol were targeted too. I have reported to the police that [edited] in Northallerton sells alcohol to under aged drinkers but nothing has happened. I have two teenage sons and drinking seems to be the norm to them, I am very concerned.

I think you've gone nuts! Cats are responsible for the decline in garden birds - i dont think so! I have two cats, both neutered toms and between them in the last 11 years they have caught one bird. This was a very old looking bird and i think it probably died of old age and they found it. Before these two i had a couple of females, not both at the same time, and the most they ever caught was butterflies and house flies. I think the decline is just as likely to be due to insecticides, acid rain or martians as it is to the moggie!

My garden is heaving with Blackbirds. There are cat owners all around my property, with free roaming moggies. I lose more birds to sparrow hawks than to felines. We feed our garden birds everyday of the year, it's like a transport cafe! They reward us by frequenting the garden in large numbers. I think your theory is somewhat simplistic and flawed.

Has anyone bothered inspecting the actual results that Germany has experienced with these expensive monstrosities?

It appears highly unlikely.

Where are the conventional power stations that must run continuously to provide the permanently available hot spinning backup for the 80% of the time these turbines are not producing any electricity going to be built?

A fairly typical, exagerated and lopsided view of the altenatives to nuclear. 1,000 ft including the hill! Have you ever read such rubbish? Arthur Scargill correctly forecast the demise of mining, it was the conditions miners worked in which caused illness....note that this is not a problem nowadays.

You might as well compare with nuclear power if there were no shielding in place. If there had not been such a rush to build nuclear so that a supply of irridated bomb fuel was available, at a time when we were still deep in debt from WWII, we might well have gone down a more efficient avenue than the billions spent on nuclear. Perhaps even built energy efficient houses like the Scandinavians and saved the massive heat lossess from them.

Building ten more stations will save 4% CO2 and add to the £76 billion [and rising] costs of decommissioning. Perhaps he might mention saving energy before continuing wasting 60% of the heat from a nuclear station into the seas. Try the sea around the outlet at Sizewell and shudder at the waste of it all.

Oh dear - yet again, we have the supporters of nuclear power trying to prevent the installation of a wind farm - without mentioning the significant difference in the two technologies - nuclear waste.

Why is it so difficult to understand the simple fact: nuclear power creates deadly nuclear waste which lasts for thousands of years and we have yet to decide how to deal with it (and I would not mention Sellafield in this context if I were you!). Wind power generators on the other hand, can be installed relatively quickly, create no radioactive waste and can be taken down and removed equally quickly - and most likely will be, when non-fossil fuel technology comes up with some other (non-nuclear) answer.

Value your landscape by all means - but please do not condemn the country - and the world - to a regeneration of a dangerous and unnecessary technology and an ever-growing mountain of lethal nuclear waste. There is no view on Earth worth that.

Wakefield does very little to celebrate st George's Day (last year we had a French market on St George's Day) What's wrong with celebrating the land of your birth. With all it's faults England has so much to be proud of so for just one day a year let's celebrate being ENGLISH (As Cecil Rhodes said 'to be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life')

Its absolutly disgrasefull , the amount of damage caused by farm vehicles is far worse than the 4x4,s cause. Motorcycles wheel tracks are gone in less than a week, small minded walkers should think again as the majority of vehicle users i meet are polite friendly and carefull.

Long ago, in another life, I was a Youth Hostel Warden. I can truly vouch for the fact that the YHA management bodies have lost the plot. The YHA has always been run under a peculiar system of accountancy that appears to be able to turn profit into loss and make "t'committee's" favourite hostels profitable, no matter how few bed nights they have, or how great the seasonal fluctuations. Let's face it, if the present powers that be didn't walk the Pennine Way, they won't appreciate the need for hostels on it, so those are the ones that will go. If they didn't cycle, the cycling hostels are the ones that go - that is what was happening in my day.

And don't ask a warden to fight your corner. Both my husband and I wardened at different times before we married. We both fought to save hostels - we both got moved around to less and less profitable hostels, them moved into the ones that were scheduled for closure, then - surprise, surprise, made redundant. And we know many more it happened to!

Plot lost. Law unto itself. Forget the original ethos - long gone. Like our memberships.

I visit the Yorkshire Dales quite often and would be devasted to see the landscape altered. The people who do not live in the dales expect everything to remain the same and do not realise all the problems which are being experienced by the hill farmers and everyone connected with them. I certainly support your cause and voice my concern. I also think the country should value all the country crafts thoughout England and be proud of our Heritage.

I think that the work being carried out by C.I.W.F. and its other sister organisations across the UK and Europe are very good at highlighting the importance of the welfare of Farmed Animals, are against factory farming, and want the best for all farm animals, not just from the creatures birth, as all creatures, farmed or wild, are sensitive to good and bad management, feel pain and distress, and are capable of much more than they are given credit for, so Why should there be anything less than good farming practices if we are to continue to use domesticated Farm animals for food sources?

Farmers must surely benefit in the long term by ensuring that animals are kept in the best of condition, and the public are, as rightly stated by this article, becoming evermore aware of this responsibility that they have.

That is why people are concerned about Farm Animal welfare - it makes sense!

Hopefully the connections from the X84 will be there otherwise we're onto another lost cause. But THREE CHEERS for getting a bus back in the Dales. Happy Cackleberry Time!

Our local trekking centre closed because of this problem and an important leisure facility for tourists and locals has been lost.

Legislation is threatening all aspects of survival for small businesses . In order to pay increasing costs ,prices rise or proprietors work much longer hours to keep abreast of costs.

The way enterprise is stifled n this way is real cause for concern. This area survives largely due to small business ,there being few companies in the local area employing the masses.

We are in danger of losing small shops, bed and breakfast, pubs post offices and most of all farms. Service sector are closing retail outlets in favour of working online and from vehicles advertising their business.

The decline in traditional village way of life will affect visitor numbers.. Loyal locals are supportive of businesses but small populations cannot sustain all businesses.There does not appear to be much Support from the Government for rural issues. Look how badly the outbreak of foot and mouth in 2001 was managed . The effects of the hunting ban must have affected the entire equestrian industry which I think is the second largest rural industry after farming.

It is not just, when you have insurance for your stock and land,and trespassers can claim for being injured when climbing over walls or chasing livestock, picnicing in fields and leaving litter and bottles which can endager wildlife and walkers!

We live in acrazy world where p.c. and litigation are spoiling lifestyles. Is it any wonder why there are fewer local fetes village hall events, garden parties. open days and variety of events at shows .Volunteers have the same rights and responsibilities as paid workers but are nervous of being sued should an accident occur.

Insurance means that many activities in the villages now won't take place. It also remains a pity that there does not seem to be a way of re addressing the balance. I would be interested in others' views on this matter.

My concern is that as road plans stand for traffic travelling north to use the new road from Blossom Gate to Coltsgate Hill and avoid the Market Place it will still have to go up High Skellgate and along Westgate. Are there any plans to use Firby Lane to travel north?

I am appalled by the number of road signs that are now present on Sutton Bank. It would be interesting to know the total cost of these signs because this is surely a case of overkill! The signs which are specifically for lorries and their HGV drivers are achieving not much more than the existing signage which is drastically exaggerated as it is. Most drivers greeted with a plethora of signs probably find their eyes glazing over and admire the view. Does research tell us what percentage of HGV traffic is regular? new to the area? first time users? Perhaps the money spent rescuing HGVs from Sutton Bank could be recouped from the hauliers involved? Who will provide the answers?

I think all the public should be very concerned with higher welfare standards for every type of farmed Animal, not just for the quality of their lives, but also during transport and at slaughter.

As the recent coverage by the media in America concerning cows shows, there should be no room for cruelty towards ANY type of domestic animal. If they are going to be used for food, then at least treat them with some respect!

Deal with 2 problems:

1. over-fishing of the coastal waters - create conservation areas to allow the wider fish stocks to regenerate.
2. allow measured culls of cormorants inland. This happens to many species that get out of hand and cause damage - deer, rabbits, squirrels.

This Government has taken away services from post offices to ensure small offices are unprofitable. It is a national disgrace and they should resign immediately.

In response to Lewis McNeil’s reply; that’s lucky for you who decided to give up flying to save the planet. Unfortunately for a lot of us, flying IS a way of life, whether you like it or not.

I am sick of this, a ‘scientist’ bandies about some figures, the massed media picks up the taglines and we all panic. Read the news correctly please, this is typical of massed media (Reuter’s) scaremongering; Andrew Haines who we attribute this figure to is a Professor in Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, not of Climate Change and Meteorology. His statement – read clearly states the “We estimate that climate change may already be causing in the region of 160,000 deaths ... a year”. Keywords ‘estimate’ and ‘may’. He attributes ‘potential’ deaths to an increase in malnutrition, increased spread of malaria, etc etc.

Now a popular greenhouse effect scaremongering tactic is the effects caused by desertification - leading to malnutrition, primarily seen in Africa, and elsewhere; indeed parts of the once South American rainforest are a desert now thanks to man, but this is NOT a greenhouse effect. This is poor education, poor farming practices and over use of the fragile soils. Nothing to do with the greenhouse effect whatsoever – indeed further proof is in the encroachment of the Sahara in Libya – once the breadbasket for Rome, but due to the rise in Roman population and increased demands this led to unsustainable agriculture which in turn led to desertification, nothing whatsoever to do with carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Greenhouse effect = increased malaria? Transmission of the Plasmodium falciparum malaria depends on a combination of temperature and rainfall conditions. A recent study carried out by Scientists at Oxford University, have found NO LINK between the recent increase in malaria in the East African highlands (one area typically at risk in this respect from ‘global warming’) What they found was that "Temperature, rainfall, vapour pressure, and the number of months suitable for P. falciparum transmission have not changed significantly during the past century or during the period of reported malaria resurgence." In brief, what they have found is not in line with the simplistic notion that global warming = increased malaria.

And if the place is getting drier – (ie. Desertification) then both the parasite and the mosquito which transmits the parasite cannot thrive.

Ok, so without air travel, as it is would be impossible – for the most part (and surely you are not advocating the use of ships now that would by hypocritical) so education there would suffer, as would healthcare, infrastructure, and more than likely social attitudes, THAT will be the demise of us, not ‘the greenhouse effect’.

So as long as your children and grandchildren don’t live in Africa or Asia, or certain parts of the Brazilian rain forest, and isolate themselves in Hull. I think there is a good chance they will be safe from Malaria and malnutrition.

Great to see these guys having success, its a great set of songs, and will do well for them. They could be a big band of the future, and all from Bedale!

If you claim to be a 'commited environmentalist' you would take the necessary step of giving up flying, and oppose all further expansion of the aviation industry. Theres no two ways about it: flying is grossly damaging to the biosphere, and it's unchallenged exopansion is set to become the final nail in the coffin for us and the rest of the species we'll take with us.

I too love travel, and giving up flying has been my biggest environmental sacrifice to date. However, it is not vital to my existance, and choosing not to fly will not impact on my quality of life. As for those living in Bangladesh.....you say that 'the country folk have a right to make a living'? Well, what about the 160 000 who are dying every year already as a result of climate change (UN figure)????? Surley these third world 'country folk' have a right to, er, simply live?

The time has come to realize that we need to make serious adjustments to our lifestlyes if our children and grandchirldren are not to feel the wrath of our temporary decadence. We may feel hard done by when certain 'rights' are taken from us, but compare this to the rights of those who are dealing with the reality our way of life already, and I think the 'right thing to do' becomes crystal clear.

Have GLASS UK or CRAG UK been involved in these discussions?

GLASS (Green Lane Association) and CRAG (Countryside Recreational Access Group) are both committed to the correct use of green lanes throughout the UK, and should be considered as attendees of consultations with regard to the use and restrictions on the country's routes.

While I appreciate that land owners, parish councils and other interested parties have (or may have) been consulted, in order to ensure an unbiased view, the above two organisations should also be able to participate in discussions and contribute.

The good people of the Health & Safety Executive of course analysed the last 600 years of Shrove Tuesday fun in Ripon and clearly decided that there were too many deaths and serious injuries to allow the event to continue. If you believe that, you still believe in the tooth fairy. What do you think the reaction would be if they used the same demands in France? Do you really believe that the good burghers of a similar town would roll over and accede to their demands? Of course not. They would have ignored the nanny state dictate and gone ahead.

What would the police and council officials in Ripon have done if the Ripon folks had done the same and ignored this ridiculous order? Would all the people of Ripon been arrested or served one of these equally silly ASBOs? No, of course they wouldn't. Come on people of Ripon, with your straightforward ways and calling a spade a spade. You're in serious danger of losing your reputation as strong, forthright and independent folk.

Funnily enough I have just finished reading the article on Bio-fuels, and then clicked on this one regarding flooding. Now it doesn’t seem illogical to me that by switching to biofuels we could also do ourselves a favour with respect to flood prevention, and in the long term help reduce the “greenhouse effect”.

Should we be spending money on more flood defenses when the problem lies with ourselves not being able to see the bigger picture? The problem is the upland areas are saturated, the Ribble, Wharfe, and Aire catchments are waterlogged and excess water simply runs off the hills (via our man-made trackways – but that’s another story) and into the rivers, which obviously cannot cope and the lowlands suffer.

In order to prevent this from happening we need a sponge, something that soaks up the water. Any ideas? Let’s have a think – oh yes, a tree drinks a lot of water; therefore one can assume that lots of trees drink lots of water. Therefore as the tree drinks the water the ground upon which the tree sits doesn’t become saturated and any excess rainfall simply gets soaked up by the earth … even better, later on, we could burn the trees (especially fast growing creatures like the goat willow) as a biofuel. Brilliant! – I think I have just solved the two problems in one go. Could it be as simple as this? Or should we just go out and soak up the water with wads of cash?

Well now, isn't that a surprise!

Seriously, did anyone believe that the present Government would make any concessions at all to the country, especially to farmers, whose very existence is anathema to the Southern 'Liberal' meterosexual self-loathing middle-class Socialist pseudo-intellectual self-elected elite?

Small schools are dependent on small children living in the area. Most of these rural areas are blighted by second homes/holiday homes or property prices that are way too high for first time buyers or young families. This is not an education issue, its like everything else in this country, a property issue.

It is indeed no surprise that the Aire valley floods. Just looking at this flat bottomed valley will tell you that it has been flooded regularly for thousands of years. That is why it is flat and fertile.

Does Mr Sheard expect the banks to be raised higher to prevent flooding in the area? That will have the effect of delivering water downstream to Leeds a lot faster, but Mr Sheard's despised "townies" live there, so that doesn't matter.

We need to take note of all the building of patios and concreting over gardens that prevent rain water soaking away. In addition farmers need to get back to hedging and ditching, which used to prevent floded roads.

My views on the Veal industry: It occurs to me that the way veal has been publicised is all wrong, and yes if we did kill the animals to be destroyed soon after birth then what is heartbreaking is the fact that the animal is sent away to be destroyed. We should however especially in this country educate the British people, a nation of animal lovers, and explain the resons why animals have to be killed.

It's not fair to lay everything at Beckett's feet. In my opinion, the entire RPA hierarchy involved in awarding the main IT application contract, and in supporting and extending it, despite the cautions being strongly expressed to them by various independent consultants, should also bear a large amount of culpability.

It's hard to know whether the IT vendor is also 'responsible' - it comes down to whether shareholders or taxpayers interests should be seen as paramount. Beckett still should have been forced to resign though.

It's about time people with a bit of clout took issue with the national obsession with cheap, cruelly produced, intensively raised meat. I hope Jamie and Hugh will make an impact on the British public and supermarkets who keep costs - and welfare standards - so terrifyingly low. No wonder there is Bird Flu in battery farms and TB in cattle. They are not meant to be living in such crowded, unhealthy conditions.

I very much agree with the views of your commentator. Let 2008 commence with the rural folk begining to look after themselves and have their views listerned too for once.

Foxes are vermin and as such need to be kept under strict control for the sake of other creatures, and farm animals, in the countryside. Fox hunting is a natural way of control. Animals hunting each another is all part of nature. Foxes do not kill solely to survive. They kill for pleasure, and are vicious. Fox hunters have no desire to eradicate the fox, merely to keep the harm they are capable of to a minimum.

A fit and healthy fox is quite capable of outwitting the slower thinking hounds. If a fox is killed, it is almost certainly, dispatched by a lead hound very quickly, before the other hounds catch up.

The Countryside Alliance reports many thousands of people turning up to Boxing Day meetings and hunts continuing. Before the ban they predicted the countryside would collapse, hunts would shut down and the end of the world was nigh because the cruelty was going to be taken out of their 'sport'.

So the Hunting Act has actually done them a favour, people can bring their families to Boxing Day parades to join in with a traditional spectacle which allows for pageantry and a social event. Riders and hounds can have a day in the countryside without chasing and killing British wildlife for fun, which is an uncivilised, debased thing to do.

So come the next election the public are not going to vote to go back to cruelty, this is the 21st Century.

The Hunting Act is here to stay.

I think it is scandlous that more dentists are withdrawing their nhs dentistry facilities and therefore pushing everybody into going private. The state of the countries teeth is going to disintegrate as not everybody can afford private dentistry.

This sounds absolutely delicious. A very enjoyable article, & will try the recipe if I can ever get hold of a guinea fowl (not commercially available - you need to know the hunters) Still you can always hope.

The best I could manage this year was home made chicken pate, spinach stuffed duck (local)& orange sauce, glazed ham, salad, homemade chocolate mousse, bought (sorry) pavlova with grapes strawberrries & kiwifruit (all in season)& ice cream. Naturally it rained! We drank an Aussie white.

Wishing you a very merry New Year....

Whilst like you i have every sympathy for disabled people, does a person in a wheelchair want to get over a stile (or through a kissing gate) as most of these are on footpaths over very rough ground! Will moorland footpaths be next on the pc list as not suitable for wheelchairs!!!?

These people are scum. The mess they have left near appersett on the return route from hell gill is a disgrace. These people should be made to repair the area and banned from the dales for life.

As a life long walker in the Yorkshire Dales I am appalled at the deterioration of the green lanes mainly caused by off-road 4x4,s and motor bikes. I now suffer from arthritis and, whereas in the past green lanes would have been ideal for walkers with my condition, some are now too rough and uneven to provide enjoyable walking.

The National Parks were created for visitors to experience peace and tranquility and therefore, I believe that all off-road activity should be banned from the Parks.

This one is great. John I check your site every week, and I find it very good. Us Rural Folks here in the USA, can relate to what ya are saying. Even though the people and events are not the same, the problems are. Thanks for putting this one out. AND HAVE A GOOD ONE.

You should not trust the Daily Mail, which has got its facts wrong. The supermarkets and processors put up prices and passed the increases in full to their farmer suppliers. This was acknowedged by the the UK government, in its formal response to the Thirteenth Special Report of the Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (which had investigated the matter in detail).

The Government said "We conclude that the July and September 2003 retail price increases were transmitted to farmers ... We welcome the decisions of the supermarkets to increase the retail prices of liquid milk and cheese last year while specifying that the price increases must be passed along to farmers."

Then they went and fined them for doing so.

Disability is all about degrees and where you draw the limit of what you can do. Although very fit, I am not 'able' to climb Mount Everest. I would love to stand on the top of that mountain. Does that mean I have a right to lobby for a chairlift to be fit up it? Of course not. We all need to know and work within our limitations, whatever they are.

NIMBYs LOSE THEIR SAY

Whilst Gordon Brown was being roasted by the press for his party accepting donations from wealthy property developers by proxy, with hapless Tory voters being used as nominees, a more significant but far less newsworthy announcement was being made about the governments planning reforms for major infrastructure projects which went largely unreported.

Not surprisingly, due to our lumbering planning system ,it takes years and years before proposed infrastructure developments can be built. This is largely due to the local nimbys objecting but the government make no mention of them being silenced as the new reforms boldly state that the publics right to be heard will be protected.

Heard maybe but definitely not heeded as major planning decisions will now be taken away from vote conscious local councils and given to a band of tame non local 'experts' interested only in the national good and not views from front windows over open country or the local council voting bias.

The government claim that this will enable major planning decisions to be made in under a year ,which is the blink of an eye in planning terms, and enable much needed development to proceed quicker and cheaper.

As expected, all the usual highly organized and eloquent minority groups (Friends of the Earth, Clique to Protect Rural England etc) are of course objecting, but by contrast the big landowners the Country Land and Business Association think it's a jolly good idea. Turning muddy fields into any form of development means big bucks for them and, since these infrastructures are for some future general use, residential planning will soon follow which is the most profitable holy grail behind the whole exercise.

I have no doubt that the government will find some way of taxing the huge profits that will be made by the landowners but this is the only way their targets for building new homes can be achieved .

Local residents and councilors will lose their powers of saying and enforcing "Don't build it here - build it somewhere else"

As a result, perhaps in the future, large donations by hopeful property developers to political parties who control the local councils and planning offices will not be quite so frequent or necessary to obtain planning consent.

• Ron Kennor is General Manager of Robinson Jackson Estate Agencies

I think it is wrong for the biggest mammal population on the planet (man)to even imagine it has the right to kill other creatures in this totally useless way.

farmers flout the laws every day.they take three quarters of the road up with their tractors etc forcing other road users into the hedge back.they are mostly responsible for the state of the pot holes etc on country roads.my husband worked on a farm for 20 years spraying etc without any protective clothing at all.it it high time that the law caught up with them and fined them heavily for their law breaking, which takes place every day.

DEFRA once more are working hard...to bring farmers to their knees. It's constant stress, let up, stress, let up. And, just when you think things can't get worse, they will change the rules. Anything that can involve, hardship, DEFRA will impose. As if the weather conditions weren't hard enough to deal with, and livestock and arable prices down. You can;t even have a good moan over the market gate,there aren't any markets, abbatoirs failing and you can't find an incinerator for deadstock.

We must not give up. THis country still needs it's farmers, it just doesn't realise HOW MUCH!

This is great news for geocaching and for the Dales. I have not been back to the UK since I began geocaching just under a year ago, but I have great plans for hunting geocaches on my next trip there. I always love visiting the Dales, so now I have even more incentive to spend time there! There's an interesting-looking series in Bentham, and a series that spans a great part of the North, including Hoghton (Lancs., nr. Preston) and Preston Patrick (near Kirkby Lonsdale) that I also hope to take in. Now, just to get back over there!

Superb. Malham is one of my favourite parts of the country. I have been geocaching for just short of one year and am not far off my 500th cache so I am going to pencil in Malham on my to do list.
Jason (Geoname Wicker)

Well, a news item in the UK on geocaching can't be bad. This is excellent news. As devoted geocachers we are very pleased to see the effort put into the caches in the Dales. It can only be good for visitors, cachers and for the general way to get people interested in the area and environment in a positive manner.

Wish I could go there and cache one day. This is an awesome idea to encourage geocaching in the park while providing resources. This sport is going to be so huge that everyone will have heard about it in the future.

We are Team Hatco, geocachers for 3+ years. We live in the desert in California, and have found almost 500 caches. These projects of yours capture the true essence and spirit of the sport. We have nothing but applause for your endeavors. Cache on!

I had the fun of finding a couple of geocaches in York and London this past summer while on holiday with my wife and daughter. I think it is great that a National Park would encourage geocaching. In the US they are very protective of the environment and are not too supportive of geocaching, at least in our area.

Absolutely very cool. A wonderful asset and it is great to see an Authority acting in a progressive manner to promote a positive use of the resources. I'd be interested to know if the caches are registered at www.geocaching.com or they are unique to YDNPA...

While this is a good idea, to keep the numbers down, I would like to point out that many squirrels hide their nuts. If giving the pill(disguised in nuts)is supposed to take effect sooner rather than later, then surely them eating their hidden nuts at a much later date would not be effective! But then in 5-10 years time Defra may have come up with a better solution.

I personally think squirrels are nice. We only have grey ones come into our garden, they behave ok and don't damage anything that I can see. Their antics amuse us. It is a pleasure to watch them - "Cyril & Beryl". I even have names for them, altho I have no idea what sex they are, or even if they are different every time they "visit"!

What a grand idea, I've often thought that a walking guide was too narrow and wished that someone would produce a guide with Arch/Historical/Landscape information. So well done.

Been Geocaching since March 2007. It is great fun and you findout a lot about the countryside around you. That a National Park is also helping in this growing sport is fantastic. Keep it up

I think this is a very positive development for all concerned. As Chairman of the West Yorkshire branch of the TRF I welcome this with open arms and congratulate all those involved. I hope that those who do not want trail riders in the 'Dales' at all, can accept that trail riders have made concessions, perhaps they can too, and then everyone can enjoy what the Dales has to offer either on foot, horseback, bicycle or motorcycle.

Having just had a week staying in the south I can see how challenging it is to live in an area that is constantly crowded. Everything and everyone suffers with over crowding - just getting from A to B is hard work. All the people in this country need to protect spaces from over development to keep their sanity and constant building on them is not what we need.

David and Ann deserve great success from their efforts to put the equipment of this building back into working order. All too many buildings and artefacts are preserved without restoring their original function so they become amusements or tourist attractions. This is an example of a new and to my mind much more valid way to preserve our heritage.

Last Tuesday night, the Andromeda galaxy was visible to the unaided eye from Horton in Ribblesdale, one of those very rare occasions when "seeing" was very good despite increasing light pollution.

The planets, their moons, the stars, our Galaxy and numerous other fascinating heavenly objects were the cast on the original "Sky TV" for primitive man through to modern mankind. Human tribes throughout history, separated by once insurmountable distances, recognized the same visual constellations as does modern mankind and so history was written in the night sky and passed on to countless generations.

The whole of the history of the universe is visible on "Sky TV" and we are slowly turning it off.

Maybe cats should be banned when dogs are banned...they kill birds by the millions the world over, esp. in cities. I had 2 wonderful Irish Setter BIRD dogs as a child and 2 as an adult. I now have 2 spaniels. None have frightened a bird in my presence.

However, one setter BIRD dog made a footpath through the fields to the lake and could be seen frolicking along the shore happily "scaring" up waterfowl on their ways going north or south in spring and fall. For all I know, the birds thought it was fun, too.

There is a growing demand for allotments in Skipton, and currently there is a waiting list for plots on each of the Council owned sites. Nevertheless Skipton Town Council still intend to sell off the former Burnside Allotments site for housing development.

I have recently written to all members of the Town Council imploring them to consider residents own views before selling off such a valuable community asset, which should be (if it is not) a statutory allotment site. Please support the demand for a positive allotments policy in Craven.

Firstly can I point out that Tesco do in fact stock Prince Charles' Duchy products although I don't buy them as they are far too expensive.

Secondly, it seems to me that people who condemn Tesco and other supermarkets tend to be middle class people with a rather rosy view of the past. I for one do not wish to return to the days of traipsing round individual shops carrying a number of bags with the weekly shopping. It is even harder for those with children in tow.

These same people also seem to forget that supermarkets are not the only threat to local shops. An equally great threat is the internet where goods can be purchased anywhere in the world and often cheaper than even supermarkets can offer. - are campaigners going to ban on line shopping?

The reason that supermarkets are successful is that they provide customers with what they want, convenience and reasonable prices.

I think it is absolutely scandalous that my husband and I have been without dental treatment for two years now due to the greed of dentists in our area. We cannot afford to sign up for the private scheme operated by our former dentists in Bedale and so have been left high and dry. We have both paid NHS contributions from the age of 18 until retirement but now feel we have been abandoned.

I work in the driver safety industry and we should applaud the police for cracking down in an attempt to reduce the daily tragedy of death on our roads, 95% of which could be avoided with additional education.

As one of the leading providers of defensive driving courses for business drivers, Drive & Survive is staggered by drivers' lack of knowledge, skill and awareness of the dangers that they are routinely exposed to on the roads. We are doing something about it but re-training 50,000 drivers a year is only the tip of the iceberg and most individuals wouldn't dream of spending £160 to give themselves a hugely reduced chance of being involved in a crash.

Sadly young drivers are becoming a huge problem. The current driving test is inadequate and raising the driving age to 18 will make neglible difference because young people's risk awareness only improves at age 25 and above.

We need to have driving on the school curiculum, a more comprehensive test, a probationary period, even more policing (but with police giving out stern advice to minor transgressors, not tickets) and full use of technology to catch the non insured and reckless.

I am a Highways Maintenance Operative and I suffer with eczma. I have to pull Ragwort every summer and while doing this my skin gets very irritated,i get small blister like sores and itch for hours after picking Ragwort. I've seen my G.P.and was told I am allergic to it, yet many of my collegues have mentioned the same itchy feelings but don't suffer with any skin problems such as eczma. We are told to pull Ragwort for eight hours a day for up to six weeks solid without any mention of the risk it may be causing to our health!

It's about time the government funded extensive research into the health risks to Ragwort and also make the authorities responsibile for the removal of Ragwort, e.g The Highways Agency,set aside some of the budget for safer ways to kill Ragwort! The way it's done at this present time is not helping to kill it, but helping it to thrive because it's pulled to late!!

I sincerely hope this bill is passed.Riding has been a wonderful sport for adults and children alike. Riding establishments are now more than ever going through a hard time, and to make owners responsible if someone lets their horses out of a secure field is ridiculous. I have an old pony which is too small for me to ride but I daren't let a child ride her in case of an unforseen accident. What are we meant to do?

More wild fields around us are allowing ragwort to grow undusturbed, and it is transferring itself to our nearby country park where families walk and play; it is spreading rapidly because the rangers are not mowing the grass half as much as they used to, saying they want the park to be more meadow-like. More killer-like they mean!

Sad to say this keeps happening all over the country. This has been witnessed at Chorley ( store now extended even further - extra floor) and at Leyland. At Great Harwood a planning application is currently lodged with Hyndburn council.

Yet if people are satified with inferior products and what will eventually become much less choice just to save a small amount of money or gain 'TescoPoints' which is just a mechanism of building a profile of a local store base so that the store management can limit the choice of product offering ie 'more of the same'.

I think much of these stores sucess is based around the relative ease of 'free' parking adjacent to the store. Perhaps if local council derived a charge from this facility this may help high street shops in some way?? - A more recent development is people/shoppers do not want to walk any distance searching shelves for food in the 'hyper' stores and this has given rise to the Tesco Express stores now out muscling traditional Spar and Londis mini-markets stores.

I just hope people realise what is happening and are not 'sleepwalking' into what will become a bland shopping experiance costing themselves more in the end with no alternative to turn to.

Ok, so lets look at this properly. I am a responsible quad biker and I love to enjoy the national parks and ancient rights of way all over the country and as much as I agree that some areas are being over used by vehicles(the ones most well publicised during these debates) there are some which have over grown and can not be passed even on foot to which we usualy come with saws and spend days clearing with out any thanks, it's now up to the national park networks to may be allow limited use say on a pre applyed for permit basis as is the case in the Lakes come on every one lets share this beautiful green country without arguing.

I think that the whole philosophy of free market economy as set out by the tories and fully embraced by the current regime is the greatest cause of environmental disruption. Without any policy of planning, human nature appears to tend towards individual greed and thus the maximising of individual wealth. This article does not surprise me at all, just sickens me further.

It makes a nice change to read an uplifting and positive view on how we can proceed with replacing oil and gas with something locally produced and environmentally friendly. I look forward to seeing more of those sweeping willows in the Dales and elsewhere. Perhaps Gordon Brown should change his speech from 3 million new homes in the south to 3 million new willow trees.

I thought I'd let you know that I saw a Green Hairstreak in my garden today. I have lived at my current address for 9 years and have never seen one before, but it is so distinctive I am sure that is what I saw. I live in a hilly area of mainly sheep farm land, which normally is a pretty dry area, however NOT THIS YEAR!

I love reading Daelnet because it's good to hear news for and from the countryside. But John Sheard often oversteps the mark and his clear bias in reporting often makes me cringe, and sometimes makes me stop reading. Maybe his initial report wasn't an outright lie, but it clearly wasn't the whole story. I have to agree wholeheartedly with Tony Lidgate when he says "In running stories like this without checking does two things: It makes your readers doubt the accuracy of all your news items, and wild fantasies about surging crime just make people afraid unneccesarily."

When faced with a detailed, specific criticism as presented by Tony Lidgate, I expect John Sheard to reply with something more specific than petty schoolyard taunts such as "I have probably covered many more crimes than Mr Lidgate". And in response to John Sheard's accusation that "When there are favourable and unfavourable interpretations of the same figures it is only human for those in official positions choose to broadcast the favourable" - I would say that it is only human for journalists to choose to broadcast the unfavourable! John Sheard says "police crime figures have in general come under considerable suspicion" - I wonder if he is aware of how much criticism journalists and the press have come under for biased and sensationalist reporting?

John - please try harder to give us the full story next time, the good as well as the bad.

Just one question your readers might like to ponder - why would such an experienced journalist not check the accuracy of a story before publishing it? Just one phone call would have saved the usually excellent Daelnet from getting egg on its face.

Today's Daelnet news item tells me "Crime booming in North Yorkshire" - apparently robbery and violent crime are "surging".

Time for a reality check - crime in North Yorkshire has FALLEN for the third year running. It fell by 7.2% last year. Burglary is DOWN, autocrime is DOWN, sex offences are DOWN. And, since you mention it, violent crime is DOWN by 11%!

Robbery has gone up, it's true - by 40 incidents across the county's two million acres, the kind of statistical blip you get with very small numbers. Is that a "surge"?

It seems odd that if crime in North Yorkshire is "booming" the Home Office have recently confirmed that we have the lowest crime rate of any county in England...

And I see that once again you have erroneously claimed that police stations have closed in North Yorkshire. Yes, some have closed - but only to be replaced by better ones.

In running stories like this without checking does two things: It makes your readers doubt the accuracy of all your news items, and wild fantasies about surging crime just make people afraid unneccesarily.

• Editors Note:

  Daelnet has published a response to this feedback: Click here to read our article.

ALL land managers find the need for public grants, farm subsides, development grants, charity status etc, sites are managed by owners who claim tax relief etc. Why is money handed over if it cannot be shown that these birds are recieving the full legal status that the public expect.

Sites that are not breeding these birds should be blighted and marked as a problem until owners feel the cost via a lack of public will.

I feel that some people do abide by the rules and don't litter becuase they are aware of the consequences. For example the anaimals are in more danger becuse they may hurt themselves whilst trying to eat the litter. If everyone knew the consequences then i think that there would be less litter being thrown.

Also, I congratulate the peole who do take there litter home and don't just litter. In my opinion people who litter make more work for other people, so if a person were to put there rubbish in the bin it would help the people who have to clean it.

I am interested in Scarhouse and visit frequently. My father lived in the village of Angram, that was flooded for the resevoir. When older both he and his father worked on the building of the dams. Many times i have walked round the resevoir and the colours change from greens to golds depending on the weather. I have taken lots of photos of the area and keep them on my computer

An answer to another feedback posted on Friday, 29 June: It's very well for GM not to need pesticides. The reason for this is, that GM produce antibiotics within to keep the bacteria from living that'd you so much would spare from the pesticides. Very well. This means that everytime you eat GM food you eat antibiotics in a small dose.

Every person, every day of their lives. Take a look at our hospitals and see what problems resistance to antibiotics have crceated there, multiply this by the amount of GM food being eaten, digested, passed through into the ground water by faeces, spread again onto our fields - and you will have a scenario on which we'll soon have no way of keeping life threatening diseases at bay. Congrats - you've used less pesticides, though!

You have yet to explain how a GM crop that is infertile is able to "take over and the natural plant would cease to exist." As much as I share your doubts and bleak view of GM ( I have other reasons for dooing so), this one escapes me. Please explain.

I agree with yr comment re big bikes and middle aged men with failing testosterone (I speak as an ex biker: small Bike)who gave up riding at 70. Speaking from experience, the vast majority of bikers ride safely, but the few give all a bad name. Also a lot car drivers are poor in looking for bikers especially at road junctions, and also in slow moving traffic when they pull out without looking in their review mirrors ( again I speak from experience) or their blind spots. How many car drivers look in their left hand mirror when turning left? this bad driving technique also applies to cyclists as well as bikers. I have been knocked off my bike by these idiots.

An ever growing problem that will sadly lead to a fatality during one of these raids.

Why do we have to wait until a citizen is killed in their own home before Law Enforcement acts. Re-active Policing has clearly failed and the current system is broken. Time to become pro-active to curb these organised art theives antics.

For the real truth about art related crime investigation see:

• www.arthostage.blogspot.com
• www.stolenvermeer.blogspot.com

If they die before they're mature how are they going to out-breed the wild populations? The Monsanto seeds not being fertile is at least partially to prevent the genes escaping. So what's the problem.

Round-up ready crops actually lead to less spraying of pesticide; if common sense is used rather than the spraying protocols recommended by Monsanto.

How many people have died from GM crops - answer none. There is no way a gene from food will enter your body in any significant way. Anyone who suggests it will is scaremongering.

PS how can you possibly deny that humans contribute significantly to global warming. I refer you to New Scientist of about 3 weeks ago which answers all such nonsense. Such complacency is irresponsible.

I have visited scar house many times and done the walk all around the resevoir. But my main interest is my father was born there in 1900. Both he and his father worked on building the dams. I have photos taken of the constuction of one dam. I dont know if it is the first or last one to be built. I wondered if there was any photos or information about the village of Angram before they decided to flood it for a resevoir.

We've lived in Settle for many years and John Sheard is right (this time) in that many of the road deaths here are as a result of drivers being completely reckless. Its fair to say that the roads are challenging but youngsters and old people alike are just as much to blame. In the summer the roads are used by visitors who are not familiar with the twists and turns and they often drive too slowly - mixing with locals who have places to get to in as short a time as possible.

Perhaps highlighting nationally the fact that the road is so dangerous is the best way of making sure people drive more carefully - not just on this road, but on all roads.

We attended on Sunday 24th June and would just like to say well done to all those involved in organising this event. We had friends who had been on 23rd and also thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was a masterpiece of organisation in a fantastic location against all the odds of pretty grim weather. Thank you to all the volunteers and others involved.

Those who husband the rural resources of this country should not be penalised for the privilege. The perceived advantages of a verdant outlook usually come with a lack of amenities enjoyed by town dwellers. This proposed tax revolution should be regarded as deplorable.

Stop blaming the mink for habitat loss, and human invasion on their habitats. CONservation hooliganism does nothing for genuine conservation. You may well be able to scapegoat alien species at the same time, but it damages the name of conservation and in the end wildlife suffers. RSPB are king of scaepgoating alien species and have wasted millions in funding on feathering their own nests, rather than on genuine conservation.

We are planning a walking holiday in Yorkshire this year. The plan is to do it all on public transport. Having decided to look for accommodation in the Hawes area we have done some investigating into local buses, which we could use for visits and/or to take us to and from starting points and finishing points of our walks. We were also thinking of visiting Sedbergh and maybe do a walk from there.

Now I know why I haven't been able to find any buslinks between Hawes and Sedberg - seems it has been axed!!! What a great shame. That doesn't make it easy for people to leave their car behind!!!

For several years it has been claimed that Scandinavian factory fishing has severely damaged the sand eel population which in turn has affected seabirds tring to feed youg and salmon on migration. I wonder if elvers are also being caught during this process?

Why don't they fix this road properly as this is the third time this has happened with closure. In the continent they would use concrete piling down Kexgill and stabilise the road for good I'm sure!

It is absolutely right not to cull badgers. It is more likely that the tb is spread from infected cattle and bad husbandry than any defenceless animal. Farmers can well afford the losses and immunisation is also a better option.

I was shocked to read the recent Paul Sims article in the Daily Mail re this years Appleby Horse Fair. We visited Appleby about 5 years ago to witness the event personaly and were shocked by the cruel and barbaric behaviour towards the horses. To chase them up and down the hill in blistering heat and then drive them into the water and "dunk" them is barbaric and should cease immediately. It simply must terrorise the animals and to know that one died in front of the public without any help from a vet or Rspca beggars belief. Who is there to protect the animals, we know that animals were treated like this in the past but not in 2007.

Please invoke some compassion and humanity into this event now and get those officials to invoke some action as they have the power to do.

Click here to read the Daily Mail article
Please note the article contains images of a horse in severe distress

I have been going to the fair now for most of my life (a lot longer than 16 years ) and I have also travelled the world and looked after horses in many different countries, if a vistitor opens their eyes and takes a good look at what is happening they will see a vast majority of people who care deeply about their horses. On the whole I see a great tradition of good old horse ways that are sadly becoming lost in our go to collage and have a horse socity of today. The people at Appleby have a lot to teach the rest of us about horses if only people would open their eyes and look beyond the stereotpye that has sadly become of these great horse people and some of their ways.

I visited the site of the Grassington water power station yesterday, 11th June 2007. I remember being taken by my father to see this in operation 60 years ago, when I was 10 years old. We could hear the turbines working with a gentle hum.

The weir is still intact and robust. The sluice for bypassing debris is largely intact. The intake grille is intact and apparently free of corrosion. In the two turbine chambers can be seen the remains of guide vanes; I don't know whether the turbines were Francis or Kaplan type; probably the latter for this 10ft head. Gilkes would know. I didn't spot any draught tube exit. The generator house is a roofless unsightly brick eyesore.

My "pipe-dream" is to see a smart new stone-built residence built over new turbines driving induction generators. Such a house would be more than carbon neutral, and the owner/tenant could perform regular maintenance.

Other weirs on the Wharfe include those at Ilkley, Addingham and Linton. I walked the Dales Way a year ago, and saw much potential in the Wharfe, Rawthey and Kent rivers where several weirs lie neglected, but none so promising as Grassington!

I believe that the former YEB closed Grassington when grid power was cheap. The present owner of the site could be npower.

I consider the governments bluster on environmental issues bigotted. If the politicians were really interested in using less energy and redusing pollution they would have rebuilt the railways years ago. I am convinced that the railways should be expanded sooner rather than later and I hope the Skipton/Colne line is soon reopoened along with many more.

I have been going to Appleby horse fair ever since I was a small child with my father, due to our love of horses, particularly drivers. I attended this year and I felt shocked by the number of young male travellers who were riding their horses and ponies like maniacs with no consideration or respect for their welfare. They were people who in their mis-guided attempts to appear macho and experienced horse people, just wanted to show off to the huge crowds who were watching.

In my opinion many of them don't deserve to own horses, they purposefully hit their horses with whips whilst at the same time pulling on their mouths, many of them seemed cocky and arrogant. One poor horse, which only appeared a youngster, maybe even a yearling sadly drowned due to one man's attempts to show off to the crowds. I saw young travelling children aged from about 8 years to teen years, making ponies swim out of their depth, where were their parents to supervise them?. In some cases there were child protection concerns about their parents ability to protect and ensure their children are safe.

I certainly wouldn't let my daughter go swimming in that river never mind taking her pony in with her! I witnessed acts of cruetly during the so called washing down ritual, where many didn't wash their horses but made them swim out of their depth when they didn't want to. One poor 13.2 hh coloured was forced to swim out of it's depth about 15 times, it looked shattered, it had it's tail pulled and was kicked in the back legs by one young child aged about 10, the RSPCA inspectors who were stood close by turned a blind eye. However, if I was to do that to one of my horses in full view of the RSPCA I am sure I would be treated very differently, it appeared that the RSPCA and Police were turning a blind eye as they feared upsetting the travelling community, but it seems one rule for them and another rule for other horse owners who don't belong to the travelling community.

I think many of them wouldn't stay on a horses back 5 minutes if they were to go show jumping or do a x country course, or attempt a days hunting. They just think they are horse men and I doubt some could tell one end of a horse from another. I pity the locals in Appleby who must put up with the huge amounts of rubbish, bad behavioiur, foul language and drunken louts with no manners, which I saw.

Standing on the bridge seeing what I saw seemed to be very similar to watching the gladiators and the lions.

When I set off to Appleby horse fair I did not know what to expect; I had read lots of e-mails saying things about horses being neglected or misstreated. When I was there though I can honestly say hand on heart that I saw nothing really cruel which got me upset.

Solar is not competing with nuclear energy.

Certainly solar power (along with most all non-carbon emitting energy) is part of the answer, but Robert Palgrave exaggerates the effectiveness of solar. It is definitely not the panacea he claims it to be because it is, itself, inefficient, expensive, and has its own environmental impacts.

According to the California Energy Commission ( http://www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/gross_system_power.html ), all of the utility-generated solar power in the state amounts to two-tenths of one percent of the state's electricity production. Because of the limited availability of sunlight, these systems have very low capacity factors and therefore cannot be relied upon for baseload power.

At 13 to 42 cents per kWhr, solar power is *the* most expensive way to generate electricity. What's more, due to its low capacity factors, solar capacity must be backed up with additional stand-by power generation, which adds to the overall cost of solar.

Solar requires a vast amount of land which must be dedicated to solar generation. In order for the salts to remain molten at night, CSP requires fossil fuels to be burned for heat. This renewable technology is a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions!

CSP technology, along with many other renewable power should continue to be supported in hopes that a breakthrough will someday allow them to be a significant source of energy generation. For the immediate future however, any gains in solar or renewable technology should be used to offset fossil fuels, not nuclear energy.

It is clear that John Sheard has not read Greenpeace,s report "Decentralising Power: An Energy Revolution for the 21st Century" which uses old fashioned common sense and promotes that electricity should be produced close to where it is used. Not only does this prevent transmission loss , which Greenpeace estimate to be around 3.5% , not 30% , but more importantly give the opportuntity to save 61.5% lost through inefficient generation and heat wastage in large power stations.

Greenpeace's vision is to generate power using existing efficient cogeneration with both heat and electricity distributed via local networks. In this vision the UK could meet all its future demand for electricity without producing any from nuclear power stations. Therefore Greenpeace's view is that there is need to build any more nuclear power stations anywhere in the UK.

Greenpeace continues to be science based and also is an organisation which belives in and uses direct action to make its point, which makes it different from other lobbyist groups.

I take it you want to see nuclear power plants in the south of England to "even up the score". But what is your view on using nuclear at all?

A quick 'science lesson' first on transmitting electricity. There is a modern technology called High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) which is far superior to the more common HVAC you see being carried on pylons around the country. With HVDC, the transmission loss is around 3% per 1000km. The losses are far smaller than HVAC because DC is not affected by capacitance between the conductors. HVDC is already used for connecting offshore wind farms to various countries' national grids and has for many years provided the interconnect between the grids of France and Britain.

I mention HVDC because it is the key to a sustainable clean electricity strategy for Europe, one which avoids any need for nuclear power.

Sufficient electricity can be generated from renewable sources like wind and wave in northern Europe, and from solar power in southern Europe and in the Sahara. A mesh network of HVDC transmission lines can be built to share this distributed resource around all of Europe. Because the sources of power are spread over a wide area, there is resilience, so for example, if the wind is not blowing in one area, the shortfall will be made up by solar or wave energy from elsewhere.

Using a power generation system called Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), it would be possible to generate all of the EU's electricty requirements from an area of land 110 kilometres square. Using HVDC, this could be transmitted to the UK with only a 10% loss.

CSP is a simple technology and has been working successfully in California since the 1980's. Spain has just opened a new plant near Seville, and is planning several more. CSP uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight and create heat, and the heat is used to raise steam and drive turbines and generators, just like a conventional power station. It is possible to store solar heat in melted salts so that electricity generation may continue through the night or on cloudy days.

A detailed proposal for using the deserts of North Africa to supply European electricity was commissioned in 2005 by the German government. It estimated that CSP electricity, imported from North Africa and the Middle East, could become one of the cheapest sources of electricity in Europe, including the cost of transmission. This TRANS-CSP report may be downloaded from www.trec-uk.org.uk/reports.htm.

More information about CSP and the idea of a pan European clean electricty grid is at www.trec-uk.org.uk.

So the question is not where the nuclear power stations should be built, but why on earth are we even considering them at all when there are real alternatives.

This guy talks about footballers being legends but, I think it's clear who the real legends are of this story - Scott and his guide dog Travis. The Pennine way is an incredibly difficult trek for a sighted person never mind a blind person. WELL DONE Scott and Travis!!! Truly inspirational!

I had a grand time at the Dales Festival of Food and Drink, everyone was so helpful and the weather was great, I have not been to the Dales in over 30 years and it had not changed much,it was so nice to see all the young lambs and all the greenery. I wish we had a good festival, here in California, the American's love old world stuff, and village life. I managed to try all the cheese and all the good food I managed to bring some good cheese back with me and some of the delightful honey. I hope to come back again and the next time I will drag my Yorkshire husband with me. keep up with the good work.

I am a resident within Coverdale, and also a horse rider. Horse riders do not have limitless access to the countryside, and in fact there are only two bridleways near to us, both of which, have been almost completely destroyed by trials bikers and 4x4s. Despite notices preventing the use of these bridleways by vehicles, trials bikes continue to use the route from the Old Schoolhouse, Horsehouse on most Sundays.

This bridleway is very rutted, and extremely boggy in places, making it practically impassable. In winter, when the ground is very wet, I cannot ride offroad at all, but the bikes prefer to use these routes when it is wet, and spread out across the whole area, making as much mess as possible and destoying the natural environment.

There could have been room for everyone, but unfortunately, trials bikers are not satisfied with sticking to one route, but seem to want to destroy another route, when they have made one impassable. I know that there are some responsible bikers out there, but the minority spoil it for the majority.

half the world away, yet troubles are much the same over here. Our farmers are going under daily. Foreign imports and rampant urbanization. It's rare to see someone who lives by their ideals. Raise a glass for me, sir! I applaud your conviction!

Funny article: A French President is accused of defending the interests of French farmers, and the British Premier would not defend the interests of British farmers. And yet, it is the French President who is cursed.

We are getting there!!
I cannot promise Burgundy, and we do not make our wine in imitation of anyone else's wine, but John, please let me send you a bottle of our Denbies Redlands wine, which is a blend of Pinot Noir and Dornfelder, and which sells very happily in farm shops, independent wine merchants, on and off trade etc.

Produced locally from our own grapes, on England's largest single wine estate (265 acres), our low food miles, transparency of production, and reputation as a fine wine which has been passed through the English Quality Wine Scheme, make for a high quality product. Denbies is situated on the North Downs, which is the same geological feature as the Champagne hills, 80 miles to the south as the crow flies. It is potentially dangerous to extrapolate climate change, but there are serious scientific theories that when the Champagne Hills get too hot for sparkling, English sparkling produced on the chalky downs will take over. Savour that thought!

Back to red wine, we have been growing Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay as well as about a dozen other varieties successfully for over 20 years, we have won many international wine awards and are currently riding high on a great deal of positive publicity.

English Wine Week is 26 May to 3 June - why not try out some of England's wine offerings?

Check out our website www.denbiesvineyard.co.uk
Denbies Wine Estate
Dorking
Surrey

What a complete waste of money to employ a global warming officer (no doubt he will drive around in a council supplied car spewing out lots of carbon dioxide).

The whole global warming industry is dominated by people who use it as an excuse to tax and lecture us about how we should live. Climate has been changing for centuries without any help from man so for a local council to emply an officer is completely barking mad.

Why can't these people understand we want out streets cleaned, bins emptied and decent schools and hospitals and that's it.

Keep the councils as they are. Hambleton works well and any change would be detrimental and reduce involvement of local residents

I think this was the most amazing thing i have ever seen in my life, it was so educational. I never knew water could be that dangerous. I used to be a regular reservior swimmer but this DVD had changed my life, i shall never ever swim outdoors again unless i am with a full team of paramedics with a life boat.

The acting in this DVD was superb, however i do believe that the two male actors ( the one in the blue t-shirt and the one in the black jacket) were clearly the best, the way they could use their skills to portray an obvious feeling of desperation when Adam went under the water.

It made me feel as if i was really their sharing their emotions. I believe everyone in the whole of Europe should see this as it could teach a lesson to every person, young and old. Thank you very much. Keep up the good work!

The development of a new Supermarket to the West of Ripon will be a disaster for the people of Ripon, at a recent meeting the Ripon City Manager reported from a Tesco Report that a new supermarket in any area resulted in a nett loss of jobs in the locality.

Supermarket developers acknowledge each Superstore needs a population of some 18,000 to support it, with 3 superstores in a City of some 14,000 something must give and I predict that Sainsbury's will leave Ripon at the earliest opportunity, leaving a gaping hole on the East of the Market Place.

Dear Mr Bryson
Thank you for the work the countryside campaign is doing.
Here in Cornwall the flood of summer visitors is a problem as the beaches get untidy with left litter. By the way my friend Dennis Topping lent me your recording of The Thunderbolt Kid which I listened to while in hospital it cheered my up no end.Keep up the good work.

What rubbish. House sparrows are disappearing because their habitat is being actively destroyed. I know of many colonies in London where because the habitat is right, sparrows are still there - and mobile phones! Contrast this to the concrete wastelands the middle-classes have turned our 'leafy' suburbs into with their off-street parking and decking, and you don't get any birds. As with any creature habitat is all. Please visit www.sparrowsneedhedges.com to find out more

I ran the Three Peaks Race two days ago (my first time). All concerned have done an excellent job with the bridge and footpath, which I did notice as I ran through in that brilliant sunshine. The diversion benefits everyone, including the farmer, who can work in his own farmyard unhindered. Good job done everyone.

Has Mr Sheard any examples of this in his own area, or is he just using it as an excuse for a rant about "townies"?

If I referred to country people in person as "yokels" or "bumpkins" I would expect a thump on the nose.

How can you say ignored by the poets, when the great William himself wrote his "The Lesser Celandine"

I work at the Broughton Hall business park and i think Utopia is fantastic. It offers great food at very reasonable prices. I always go for the salads when i go there for lunch as they are absolutely enormous. The staff are really nice and the atmosphere and surroundings just make it ideal.

In response to this article which has been brought to our attention.
As an organistion we are responsible for Mountain & Cave Rescue in parts of Yorkshire, Cumbria & Lancashire, including much of the area Daelnet covers.

While we are always keen that anyone undertaking outdoor activities should develop their training, experience and equipment, and are able to manage themselves safely in those circumstances; we would not wish to discourage anyone from asking for help should the need arise.

Standard advice for help in an emergency is:

• Call 999 and ask for the Police force for the area you are within.
• Ask specifically for a Mountain or Cave Rescue teams assistance.
• Provide your contact number and remain where that number can be called back.

Howsham Mill hopefully will be restored by the man who restored his own Mill building-and is assessing the viability of harnessing it. I would be most interested to know if the Sommerset Mill is viable-Do you have a name. Water logically is more realistic source than wind but maintainence expensive-Winter storms etc.

I'm sure John Sheard's intention in this article is to be deliberately antagonistic to those who live in towns and use mobile phones.

It is unfortunately a theme that runs through much of his writing. There is however no equivalence between living in a town, having a mobile phone (even in the country) and being an idiot who destroys the countryside and wastes the time of the Mountain Rescue Service.

Anyone who walks regularly in the countryside will know that reception is far from guaranteed and it would be foolish to rely on the phone as the only safety device. The phone is however a potential lifesaver for real emergencies where time may be of the essence and there are many instances of lives being saved in this way.

I agree the phone is not a substitute for proper equipment, but it is a reasonable and modern addition to it when responsibly used.

Any consultation at all is a sham.

This strategy comes from Brussels, and there is nothing that any member of any Government in Great Britain at any level, from the merest parish councillor to Mr Blair himself, can do to prevent it.

There is some misconception that the European Union is at some level democratic. This is not, and never has been the case, nor was it ever intended.

It is fundamental to the Treaty of Rome that the European decision makers are disconnected from the opinion of the public at large, not only because the public at large would not consent to its plans, but also because, fifty years ago, there was some distrust of the democratic system.

After all, the democratic decision of the most militarily powerful state in Europe to democratically forgo democracy and democratically elect a dictator had led to the most catastrophic sequence of events in all of recorded history.

So they had a point.

What a lovely and most necessary, it seems, article. I live in the US and hedgehogs are not native here. I think it is wonderful that you are protecting these darling animals. I came upon your site when researching the town of Malham where my family, sister, brother-in-law and I will be on holiday next Christmas. My brother-in-law is from Yorkshire so we are all returning to spend a lovely holiday with his parents.

I think your region of England is just gorgeous and I look forward to seeing the beautiful dales again. I imagine the hedgehogs will not be out in the cold weather of winter so I will have to return some Spring and Summer to see them in their homeland. Thank you for the very important and kind work you are doing to protect these "prickles".

Yes global warming is happening, however blaming human CO2 emissions is dubious to say the least. Indeed blaming CO2 at all is stretching the imagination. Having spent many years working in a testing laboratory I cannot take the example of the beaker experiment seriously. In the first instance, any heavier than air gas would produce the same result.

The experiment as described reminds me of those animal experiments where a harmless substance is reported to have caused cancer in rats. What is not stated is the fact that the dose administered was equivalent to twice the amount a human would injest in a life time.

What should be realised is the IPCC output is based on computer models which have been programmed with assumptions and incomplete data, historically documented data is for the most part ignored. The resulting documents, political policy documents / vague reports are prepared by civil servants and not scientists. It is also interesting to note that many of the claimed and named 2,500 scientists have had their contributions ignored because they did not agree with the preconcieved doctrine and others no longer contribute to the process.

I confess that I am one of those sad people, who doesn't blindly soak up every bit of propaganda I am fed. Blame it on my upbringing or my scientific training, but I am boring and actually research facts for myself.

The true facts are available for anyone, who takes the time to look for them. I have looked and found nothing to suggest anything other than business as usual for mother earth.

I could waffle on about past CO2 and temperature levels many times greater than now. Sudden climate changes and the fact that increased CO2 levels have always followed temperature increases and not caused them. But why bother, this information is readily available to any intelligent person, who is willing to find it.

NASA have confirmed that global warming is happening on other planets in our solar system. Does this confirm alien life and 4x4s on other planets ??. I know ! - It's a silly suggestion, I will be trying to blame the sun next !!!

The Easter weekend was the most enjoyed since we came to Ribblehead, I assume this was due to the speed check signs between Selside - and the carpark prior to the Hawes/Ingleton Road.

The IDIOTS were missing and life was pleasant, lets hope this keeps going.

I am not anti motor cycle, I used to race internationally many years ago, not like some of these clowns i kept my racing to the tracks and the road in the Isle of Man.

Many thanks for a pleasant weekend

I agree that a problem is the power lobbies supporting wind power. Another issue are the "environmentalists" who, like some politicians, have a very unrealistic view of life. Both are "all knowing", and truly do not know what the average Joe or Jane must face each day, while they are too busy with eiher their utopian thinking, or efforts to control our lives.

I am still unsure after reading Mr. Sheard's article above quite what the author’s attitude towards any efforts to reduce our CO2 output actually is. It carries a distinct suggested that its overriding interest is in resisting any attempts to achieve this reduction which might impact upon our income or our chosen lifestyle.

It isn't surprising to find this self defensive state of denial in the general public, overwhelmed by theories and statistics as many of us are. It is worrying though when such optimistic and simplistic views are clutched like a lifebelt when tossed to them by a lightweight cut’n’paste TV program purporting to be “science”. A program incidentally, made by a producer widely acknowledged as opportunistic, manipulative and no friend of integrity. A strange choice of supporting evidence by someone with a long and wearying history of recording matters of science. Personally I don’t think we should be looking for guidance on scientific matters from a populist TV program. They and their employees have their own agendas and priorities to follow. Far stronger I would think and certainly far less scientific than the most ridiculous and paranoid accusations of conspiracy being thrown at many of our most experienced scientists.

As an experienced "science" correspondent Mr. Sheard's, do you really consider the effects of our own co2 production to be irrelevant in respect of what you portray as a "perfectly normal phenomenon"? I find it difficult to understand how or why anyone would suggest that we shouldn’t be seriously concerned (to say the least!) about our current level of CO2 production.

As someone whose political views are some what to the left of Karl Marx I shall assume that in your eyes I am as "rabid" as they come. Untill such time as that sort of attitude might be succesfull in its implied wish to stamp out the expression of such views, I would like to share some of mine with you. I don't yet have enough information on this proposal to give a fully considered view but I too would be very concerned to hear of carte blanch being given to any such intrusive activities as canoeing or indeed for that matter, fishing. Obviously such traditional Tory pastimes as otter hunting should forever remain abhorred and outlawed but I also think any activity which is primarily concerned with the torment and killing of wild creatures should also be examined and monitored very closely.

I suspect in fact, that if push comes to shove, I would vote canoeist over fisherman on those grounds alone. I should also add that on purely aesthetic grounds alone, and leaving aside any other environmental considerations, I would have to support your objections to a freedom to roam for canoeists

I do however share your views that the beauty of our countryside should be available where possible to all reasonable interests providing that the needs of wildlife are given full consideration. After all, I am sure most "country folk" are not shy of asserting their own rights to share in the facilities of our towns and cities.

Your tug at the heartstrings in name of the financial interests of the landowner and others with more money than imagination does stick in the throat though. In a similar fashion to the effect that swallowing the crumbs from the tables of the wealthy always has.

Thanks for bringing this up.

On my desk are six separate, peer-reviewed papers published in scientific journals between 1999 and the end of 2005. All six are based on analyses of Antarctic ice cores dating back as far as 650,000 years. All six find that across all that time and through the inceptions and terminations of several glacial periods, changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have consistently lagged behind, rather than preceding, changes in temperature.

The time lags between temperature movement and CO2 changes range from a few hundred to a few thousand years. In at least one paper, the authors attempt to dance away from the inevitable conclusion by saying even if CO2 didn't necessarily drive warming, the subsequent increase of atmospheric CO2 would drive additional warming.

This tells us far more about the current state of science and the politics of research funding than about what the ice cores say. Even a non-scientist hick like me can figure out that the effect cannot precede the cause.

I have wonderful memories of growing up in Yorkshire and going for picnics in Bluebell Wood near Great Ayton.The carpet of Bluebells that covered the woodland floor was awe inspiring.I have a large photograph of the Bluebells framed to remind me of those wonderful times with my parents.

It amazes me that people can still have such polarised views as to suggest only 'country folk' can be decent and those from towns are all on ASBO's and generally ignorant. As for litter any walk down a dales river bank will pass by masses of litter and rubble that obviously has a farming origin. I have met decent people in both town and country and dont believe either area has a monopoly on decency.

John Sheard suggests that the theory of climate change in response to human activities is ‘far from proven’. It begs the question ‘how much proof does a person need?’ The climate of the planet alters through time due to natural processes in particular the Milankovitch cycles (the eccentricity, axial tilt and precession of the earths orbit). These control the changing glacial and inter-glacial periods of the present ice age (we are now, obviously, in an interglacial period). But this is not the full story. It has been known for two centuries that certain gasses, including methane and carbon dioxide, act to warm the average temperature of the earth by trapping outgoing long wave radiation. Without this mechanism the earth would be too cold for life. It isn’t a leap of faith to conclude that more of these gasses in the atmosphere would result in a warming effect. Thankfully we do not need such a leap of faith.

The controls on temperature are complex and include the oceanic circulation system (e.g. the Gulf Stream), the albedo effect (i.e. the relative reflectivity of a surface such as snow or rock), atmospheric composition, living systems and solar activity. Changes in one of these can lead to changes in the others. Whilst in the past rising temperature may have been responsible for a subsequent rise in carbon dioxide we do know that the gas then produces a feedback that further raises the temperature. All we are doing now is bypassing the initial driver that creates a warming effect by adding these gases through industrial activities in quantities unprecedented for a few hundred thousand years and probably more. It isn’t too important how they arrive in the atmosphere the point is once there they create a warming effect.

A simple experiment with two beakers and heat lamps can show this warming effect. One beaker contains the natural atmospheric composition and the other has enhanced carbon dioxide concentrations, this works because carbon dioxide sinks into the beaker as its heavier then air. When a heat lamp is turned on above them mimicking the sun the latter reaches a higher steady state temperature. This move towards an enhanced steady state is being witnessed on a global scale now and the evidence is all around and includes increased temperatures, increased hurricanes (some of which are more ferocious then they would otherwise be), thawing of glaciers and permafrost, slowing of the oceanic conveyer system, rising sea levels and acidification of the seas, changes to ecosystems with migration of species to polar regions or higher altitudes. All these findings are backed up by ice cores that allow us to piece together past climates and atmospheric composition through simple experiments as well as sophisticated computer models that successfully piece together past and present climates thus giving us confidence that they can predict future climates under different scenarios of greenhouse gas composition in the atmosphere.

While we pontificate in the developed countries those in poorer regions suffer. Already one low lying island has been inundated and others are heading the same way. We will not be the first ones to lose our homes or, in the case of such islanders all they have ever known, but we were the first ones, albeit in ignorance to the consequences, to emit carbon dioxide on a large scale. Mr Sheard suggests that scientists are deceiving the rest of society in order to achieve grants for research. This is simply not the case. Science works on a rigorous peer review basis and there are checks against poor research. Grants are being placed into climate research in reflection of its importance. It is not the case that scientists elevate its importance to achieve the grants, in fact being a cautious bunch they often play it down. No climate change scientist has ever ignored, or refuted, natural processes for changes in temperature and with the stakes so high it is frustrating that the sound science backing the theory of human induced climate change is being ridiculed. We all have a duty to question the evidence but not to bury our heads in the sand. The evidence is widely available and compelling with the vast number of scientists working in the field being won over by it. I do wonder why many of those arguing against the compelling evidence are elderly or funded by dubious sources and many of them are not even scientists but politicians or economists. If we have a need to find conspiracy theories then we do not have to look too far. A cursory glance at the present US administration or some oil corporations such as Exxon should be just the ticket.

Mr. Sheard being your ‘science correspondent’ breaks one of the golden rules of science by presenting a hugely subjective argument based on very little evidence. And is it acceptable to say that regions of high altitude won’t suffer from sea level rise thereby suggesting the burden lies solely with those on the coast? Where does Mr Sheard expect they will go? I doubt they will gracefully allow themselves to drown in sacrifice to the future welfare of the lucky ones buffered by altitude. Annoyingly such poor reporting provides the basis for people believing what fits neatly with their lifestyles and removes the burden of future change from them. If we care about the fascinating animals, plants and ecosystems we share the planet with (and each other particularly our children) then we have a responsibility to begin the change and where better to start then the country that took us on the process of industrialisation that is the cause of the predicament?

Global warming is a secular religion. It has all the earmarks: A doomsday scenario based on events unproven. Its high priests will brook no dissenting points of view, and anyone who questions their dogma is accused of heresy, and if a scientist, excommunicated. Will we all be forced to worship at the Great Green Church of Global warming? Will we be the first civilization to commit collective suicide because of irrational fears about a future unproven disaster? One would hope not.

My view on fox hunting is that its stupid and ignorant. When a specie is over populated we hunt it till its almost extinct then we bann hunting and wonder why they are almost gone. Fox are a beautiful animal and I dont see why anyone would want to kill them off. The human population is over run in places two but do we start hunting humans? No, so why do the same to animals, why not find different ways in controlling it instead of killing? Use killing off as a last resort if everything fails. All this "humans are the top of the food chain" is a load two we are not bigger nor smaller then the animals we share this earth with now. We are the most ignorant thing on this earth. Fox should be respected instead of hunted. Maybe we could learn a few things from the animals we hunt.

I remember around 1964, while I was at school, one of the scientific perodicals that appeared every month was a Bumper Global Cooling edition, with no less than twelve articles by world-renowned climatologists that proved, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the Global temperature was going to fall between 5 and 9 degrees Centigrade by the year 2000.

Curiously, I note that the gang predicting the new apocapalypse comprises not a few of the same individuals who spearheaded that bit of doom-mongering, working for the same institutions and in all probability in the same laboratories.

Just another scam like the Millenium Bug (remember that - nuclear reactors were going to melt down, airliners fall from the skies, gerbils would implode, End Of Civilisation As We Know It, etc, etc).

Weather Action
The Long Range Forecasters

NEWS……March 2007

After the Channel 4 science blockbuster...
Scientists call for balanced debate on Global Warming
- Circulate Channel 4's documentary to all schools
- End cover up of temperature data by UN

"The Channel 4 Science blockbuster, 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' - screened on March 8th, UK TV, Channel4- should be circulated to all schools in the same way that the Government has agreed to circulate Al Gore's movie" said Piers Corbyn, astrophysicist of Weather Action The long Range forecasters, speaking on BBC News 24 on March 9th as part of comments on the.screening.

Mr Corbyn, who appears in the C4 documentary, also said the UN's committee of Government appointees on Climate Change - the IPCC - must end its cover-up of temperature data in its Summary For Policy Makers which had graphs of CO2 over 10,000 years but leaves out vital comparison with temperatures**.

He said that the C4 film correctly showed that scientific evidence over decades, centuries and hundreds of thousands of years proved that CO2 does not drive Climate and pointed out that that for every year since 1998 world temperatures have been lower than that year even though CO2 levels have risen.

An answer to any 'rebutalls' of C4 science documentary blockbuster, ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’.

Piers Corbyn, Astrophysist, Director of Weather Action, Long Range Weather Forcasters. Commenting on the latest in the Global Warming debate...

There are two questions of the moment.

1. Is Global Warming or Climate Change - whatever its cause - really a problem?
2. How and why do Global Warmers try to dodge the message of the C4 film?

"On the first question some leading meteorologists {eg Profs Paul Hardaker and Chris Collier of the Royal Meteorological Society} have gone wobbly on Global Warming fundamentalism. Let's hope we can now get an open debate and get to the truth. A lot of the extreme claims are nonsense and anyhow a warmer world like it was from 10,000 years ago to 950 years ago would surely be better not worse?

"The public needs to know the cool facts that despite the hype World Temperatures have been lower every year since 1998 than that peak year. There are many details which the public should be told. For example New Zealand has just had its coldest December ever and it snowed in Melbourne on Christmas Day (it is SUMMER there of course). It appears to us in Weather Action that World Temperatures may have peaked. Because warming has slowed or might have stopped the 'Global Warmers' are changing the vocabulary to talk of 'Climate Change' instead. How warming driven climate change could take place without contining warming no-one knows, but the observed facts don't support them.

Leaving aside daft things like TV pictures of the Tsunami shown as man-made Climate Change the facts do not support the alarmism and just as one example tropical storms hitting the USA have gone down over recent decades compared with the rate from 1900 to1960. [There have been significantly less tropical storms and less damaging landfalling storms hitting the US per decade in the last 4 decades than the average rate over the first 6 decades of the 20th century (figures show the landfall rate was about 30% down from 1961 to 2000(/2004) compared with the rate from 1900 to 1960 – see http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/Deadliest_Costliest.shtml } . Further talk of more dangerous storms in more recent decades cannot be substantiated because the strengths were not well known in the past before satelite monitoring.

On the second question the torrents of abuse from George Monbiot suggest the man needs a cup of tea and a holiday. The more coherent invective presented as rebuttal of the C4 film (eg Steve Connor Independent 14th March) are a weak diversion from the main argument and attempt to confuse the wood with the trees. Indeed the points Mr Connor raise sound the death-knell of the Global Warmers doctrine.

Temperatures and graphs can be considered and presented in various ways from various sources and whether or not (eg) adequate consideration is given to 'urban heating' or if smoothing averages on graphs are taken over single years, decades, centuries or millenia and data plotted at the middle or end of averaging periods, the message is the same: There is no evidence that CO2 drives temperatures.

On the specifics raised by Steve Connor over the last 100 years or so any C4 errors (if real) he raises if corrected do not undermine that finding. Astoundingly Mr Connor asks us to note that the warming from 1975 to1998 has been more that that from 1900 to 1940. Why start in 1900 and what about the cooling from 1940 to 1975?!!! He assumes his readers are stupid. Surely it would be fairer to compare the warming rates from (say) 1900 to 1940 with 1940 to 1998 and we find the amounts were about 0.43degC in each case but over firstly 40 years and then over about 60 years so where does that take us? Warming is slowing. If we look from the minimum around 1910 to the peak at 1940 (30yrs later) we find that we then had more than twice as much warming as that from1940 to1998 (almost 60 years). Warming is definitely slowing - and indeed it (so far) seems to have stopped since 1998.

(Graphs and data from the official sites:

• http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/figspm-4.htm
• http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/hadcrut3vgl.txt

Mr Connor confuses temperatures over the last 1,000 years with those of the (early) mediaval warm period about 1000 years ago which was warmer than the last few decades. He does not mention that the last 750 years was the coolest period of such length since the end of the last iceage 10,500 years ago and that the Bronze Age world (including the Arctic) 4,000 years ago was much warmer than now and had less CO2 and lower sea levels.

Crucally Mr Connor says - and words to this effect are in other 'rebutalls':

"The programme failed to point out that scientists had now explained the period of "global cooling" between 1940 and 1970. It was caused by industrial emissions of sulphate pollutants, which tend to reflect sunlight. Subsequent clean-air laws have cleared up some of this pollution, revealing the true scale of global warming - a point that the film failed to mention."

WELL

(i) The first question must be how much cooler would the world be now without the relative 'undimming' of the sun he describes and does this mean the recent temperature records are not fair comparisons with the 'near records' in the smokier parts of the last 100 years. Which of the recent 'warmest' ever years should be counted out?

(ii) Yes indeed a combination of volcano dust (not mentioned by Mr Connor) and industrial (dust and CO2) emmissions (and natural CO2 which has an annual flux in and out of the atmosphere 25 times that of man's CO2) can be put together to roughly ('explain'/) move with smoothed world temperatures. However there are many graphs (of various smoothings and ways of describing solar activity** shown on C4 and elsewhere) over the last 100 years, thousands of years and millions of years which show that solar particle-magnetic activity from the sun and temperatures move very closely together. So if a special comination of CO2 and dust from nature and man supposedly 'cause' temperature changes we must ask why does the sun throw out particle effects to so closely match these very same temperatures? Man might Lord over much of the Earth, but not the Sun, please - no. So the effects of solar activity must be in charge, and the official graphs? Well they are a search for a cause too far.

** Measures of solar cycle length are mentioned in the film as an estimate of solar activity and generally speaking are inverse to the average solar activity (of particles as measured by geomagnetic activity - a measure favoured by many)

Information & Comment on other recent Global warming debate below

Email to Radio 4 Today Programme - 'I see No signal' re Sir John Houghton.

Sirs, Sir John Houghton's remarks on 'Today' BBC Radio 4 this morning (14 March) were seriously inaccurate and made false or unfounded claims which are an affront to science.

It is as in the case of another Lord - Nelson - who held a telescope to his blind eye and said 'I see no signal' because he didnt want to.

In this case some of the evidence which Sir John appears to deny was produced by himself! The claim that the world is in a unique or unprecedented weather / climate-change situation is unsustainable.

The attached Presentation has information which answers his points, specifically:

1. The claim 'temperatures have never risen so fast for thousands of years' is untrue. The graph from NOAAA (slide 10) in this presenation shows that the rate of rise from about 950 AD to 1040 AD is a very similar rate of rise to the recent about 0.6C per century.
2. The claim that there has never been such a rapid CO2 increase in such a short time is unsustainable. Periods of volcanism as well as warming of CO2 rich sea would have had such an effect and more. It has been said that such tall sharp peaks (eg 50yr to rise) cannot be seen in ice records but that is because CO2 diffuses as it goes into the ice and tall sharp rises get smudged out. The data points anyway (slide 7) although clearly showing rapid peaks of maybe 100 years cannot indicate sharper than that because the data points are not close enough together and the height of any peak will be smudged downwards.
3. In terms of weather extremes and events there is nothing going on now which has not happened before.
4. The view that CO2 is a significant factor in determining temperature is not supported by data.

Thank you Piers Corbyn

LETTER TO OBSERVER, not printed, re 'Climate Change Denial'

Sirs, I, along with others, object to being labelled as a 'Climate Change denier' with the foreboding innuendo of 'holocaust denier' that this carries - simply for having a considered scientific view which differs from that of a committee of appointees of Governments (the IPCC). Robin McKie (Observer 4 March) rather than discuss the issues seems to prefer to make us into 'hate objects', a dangerous minority. Yet I and others he attacks have studied climate for many years and know it changes. We also know - and this is what the Channel 4 blockbuster "The Great Global warming Swindle' spells out - that Global Warming & Climate Change are not caused by carbon dioxide either of Man or nature.

Science advances through argument - not through consensus and least of all through enforced consensus in which dissenters are vilified in a manner reminiscent of the Papal inquisition or inter-war Russia and Germany. In science what counts is not opinion polls however generated but hypotheses tested against observed facts, and here is the 'Global Warmers' problem. The more they hypothesise and look at reality the less support nature provides them. Measurements over decades, centuries and hundreds of thousands of years show that CO2 does not drive Climate. Furthermore in every year since 1998 world temperatures have been lower than that year even though CO2 levels have risen. Their models have failed.

Rather than open up debate to tackle this contradiction, the IPCC - which is a political body - is engaged in cover-up of temperature data in its Summary For Policy Makers. This Report graphs CO2 over 10,000 years but leaves out vital comparison with temperatures - which happens to negate their whole case. The Observer of all papers must support objective debate. I ask you to campaign to redress the present one-sided political climate on this matter and campaign for C4's 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' to be circulated to all schools in the same way that the Government has agreed to circulate Al Gore's brainwashing movie .

Thank you, Piers Corbyn, Weather Action, Long Range Forecasters

I have this statement to make regarding the relative validity of the facts and how we interpret global warming.

1. We had better get over the ridiculous political angles of trying to demean valid scientific research and get honest, intelligent scientists on board to solve this with accuracy, transparency and honesty.
2. We need a truthful assessment that everyone, including the rich people who may suffer financially from this truth, can all agree on---even if the truth hurts.
3. I don't think our civilization can afford to foolishly avoid this one. Above ground nuclear testing may have contributed to today's cancer problems...well, at least we stopped and maybe know better now. Wars are not always the solution to political problems...well, it kickstarts economies, so don't expect that one to ever be solved!
4. If we want to delay the consensus agreement to the truth and pass the consequences on to our children, then at least I hope to die before the craziness begins and that I have to means to survive it if still alive.

When mainstream politicians became involved in global warming I realised it's either one of two things more tax (anyboby who refuses is a leper) and will be stoned in the street or it's a vote catcher the big boy's muscleing in on a good thing. In the 1800's it was predicted that landon would be engulfed by horse manure perhap's it would have been a good thing!

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning – Government and Industry urged to stamp out the silent killer By Lynn Griffiths - President, CO-Awareness: Read out in House of Lords on 7th March 07. During CO-Awareness Conference.

CO-Awareness is a none-profit organisation based in Cheshire. We are one of only two small organisations in the UK that offers support to victims of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, their families, carers and friends. While trying to raise awareness about the dangers of Carbon Monoxide poison to both the general public and medical profession.

I speak from personal experience; my children and I were poisoned by carbon monoxide for nearly eleven years. We know only too well the devastating effects this silent killer can have on family life. Join us and together we can help enlist the support of government and Industry to raise awareness and prevent others from going through the same experience.

Carbon monoxide has no taste, colour or odour but can kill in minutes; it is produced when gas, coal, wood or oil fails to burn correctly. Depending on the levels inhaled, this silent killer can cause permanent damage to your health.

Post –mortem examinations are required for various reasons, but are always carried out in cases of unexpected deaths. In such cases poisoning is usually considered. Greater emphasis on looking for evidence of CO during post- mortem is needed. Deaths from CO poisoning are rising, but alarmingly it is still not recognized as part of the post mortem examination.

Carbon monoxide is harmful because it competes with oxygen for transport in the blood, resulting in the death of cells and damage to major organs, which are subsequently starved of oxygen. Carbon monoxide poisoning produces a wide range of symptoms, which can be easily misdiagnosed as flu, food poisoning or even a simple virus. The medical profession needs to ask more searching questions when a patient exhibits signs of flu e.g. Do you feel better when you are away from home? Are other people or pets sharing your home suffering from any illnesses? Advising a patient to ‘keep warm’ could in fact be placing their lives at increased risk. Keeping warm may involve turning on potentially lethal heating appliances.

The long-term effects of CO poisoning are devastating on family life and can be extremely serious. It can cause permanent damage to major organs within the body, such as the heart, lungs and brain. It is thought that the hippocampus region of the brain that deals with new memories is particularly susceptible to long term damage.

The effects of carbon monoxide poisoning over the long term may be subtle or very severe, depending on the extent of poisoning. Victims have reported wide ranging of medical problems e.g. amnesia, headaches, memory loss, personality and behavioural changes, loss of muscle and bladder control and impairment of co-ordination and vision. Although the majority of people that suffer long-term effects from carbon monoxide poisoning can recover in time, there are those who suffer permanent organ and brain damage and those confined to a wheelchair.

Many of these long term effects are not immediate and may present themselves several weeks or months after exposure. In most cases, victims don't realise that they are exposed to carbon monoxide. Sometimes, the symptoms decline but the long-term effects of low level exposure are still unknown. My research has disappointingly found no source of aftercare available to CO victims. Knowledge is the key to preventing carbon monoxide poisoning.

CO-Awareness is calling for paramedics, GPs and A&E doctors to be given portable ToxCo CO breath monitors or a Rad 57 a non-invasive pulse co-oximeter (no blood sample is required) so all patients can be routinely checked for CO poisoning. We feel that anyone with suspected CO exposure should be tested as soon as possible. The check takes just a few seconds and should ideally be carried out before patients are supplied with an oxygen mask. Measurable levels of CO start to fall once you are breathing clean air or oxygen.

Please join CO-Awareness in their campaign to Stamp out this Silent killer! Everyone of you can do something now! Mortgage and insurance companies, homebuilders, architectures can all make sure every home is fitted with a CO alarm. Government can make sure all medical staff gets compulsory CO training.

It’s vital that Government and Industry take responsibility for ensuring the public’s safety against exposure to Carbon Monoxide in order to avoid serious medical problems or death. More research needs to be carried out so we actually know how big the CO problem is and what the long term health effects are for those poisoned by CO.

What still needs to be done:

• Compulsory (carbon monoxide CO) training for all working in the medical profession,
• 'Continued Professional Development' for medical professionals re CO training and awareness
• GPs, A&E doctors and Paramedic’s to be given portable ToxCo CO breath monitors or a Rad 57 a non-invasive pulse co-oximeter (no blood sample is required) along with training on how to use them, so all patients can be routinely checked for CO poisoning
• Better support for CO victims from G.P’s and A&E departments.
• Compulsory testing for CO at post mortems
• More CO research needs to be carried out so we actually know how big the CO problem is and what the long term health effects are for those poisoned by CO.
• A government dept made responsible to set up industry panel that actually deals with CO problems from oil, wood, coal, gas and LPG, to minimise or eliminate them.
• Quicker access for Housing Associations etc to carry out gas services and safety checks, which can take at least 6 months in some cases, CO in the mean time can travel from townhouse to townhouse, flat to flat, semi-detached to semi-detached etc, which can put vulnerable people’s health and lives at risk.
• Mortgage and insurance companies, homebuilders, architectures, housing associations, government and industry can all make sure every home is fitted with a CO alarm at point of sale or change of tenancy also insurance companies should insist that appliances get serviced annually.
• Changes made to legislation so judges are encouraged to order imprisonment to incompetent trades people as well as fines.
• Changes made so that when national grid etc disconnect gas supplies the venerable person is not left to freeze in their own home.
• All gas, oil, coal and LPG etc suppliers to warn the general public about CO with every product sale and invoice.
• All home dangers including CO to be listed on the national curriculum there are 97,400 (census 2001) children under the age of 16 looking after their loved ones at home who know nothing about the dangers especially of CO.
• Government and Industry needs to take responsibility for ensuring the public’s safety against exposure to Carbon Monoxide in order to avoid serious medical problems or death
• Government and Industry needs to listen to organisations like CO-Awareness and the engineer on the street so it can tackle and problems before they arise.
• D.I.Y stores etc should be allowed to continue selling combustion appliances etc but when purchased the buyer must fill in a registration form (much like they do for TV’s) so that checks by registration bodies and manufacturers, can be made to show it has been fitted by a competent registered engineer.
• Safety certificates for gas and electronic at change of occupancy i.e. MOTs that have been completed within the last 12 months.
• Eliminate all open flued appliances without Oxygen depletion devices. (CORGI and Industry are to mount a national campaign on this issue).
• Issuing ASBO's against known illegal installers i.e. seize their assets.

More information can be found on our website:

www.co-awareness.co.uk

Simon Hart has his own agenda, his only interest here is in distracting police attention away from the illegal hunting that his members are still enjoying. Does he really think his audience is that stupid?

Horton in Ribblesdale has a very old and beautiful church dedicated to St. Oswald. Unfortunately, during the hours of darkness, it is illuminated with powerful, upward shining lights, blinding any observers view of an otherwise, relatively unpolluted celestial panorama.

A fitting tribute to human vanity - lighting up what mankind has built for God and obscuring what God has built for mankind.

Brilliant!!

I have always thought what a disgracefull waste of time the foxhunting bill was.

Liddle is outclassed in any spar with Paxman, well done Paxo. I wish him many, many more happy hours fly fishing!!

One thing I can't agree with, though is the licence fee value for money. I am completely happy with what the beeb does with my brass. Much happier, incidentally, that what Craven Council does with a lot more of it!

I am a middle-aged teacher who has recently started canoeing. While I have been distressed at the antagonistic attitude of some people who fish, generally, most fishermen do NOT seemed disturbed by us canoeing past. We make an effort to go to the opposite side of the river and our quiet passage obviously doesn't upset them; we even manage to exchange pleasantires. I have disentangled a line for one fisherman which had caught in bushes at the far side of the river.

I cannot see how canoeists are such a dire threat to fishermen and when the person above talks of courtesy, perhaps he could ask fishermen to be courteous to paddlers. I am most thoroughly country born and bred and have a great respect for nature, although I have never felt the need to kill and destroy it. However, I respect the right of town and country people who feel they must kill and destroy and I would like town and country fishermen to respect my right to pass silently and peacefully down a river in a canoe.

Fishermen and boaters co-exist quite happily in Scotland, where right of access to rivers by all is an accepted way of life.

When the wildlife and countryside act was introduced in the early 80s the government never believed that falconers would be as successful as they have been with captive breeding, Removal of the need to register birds with the government will be seen as a godsend by some breeders, as this will cut down on the amount of paperwork that they need to fill in at a very busy time.

I do not breed birds of prey, but I am a consumer of birds of prey, The article above wrongly says that there is a 'black market' for birds of prey in england, This is a false statment in that due to the pressures on feild sports falconers have been very careful since the inception of the registration scheme to abide by any and all laws that we have been presented with.

Many of us live and breathe our sport, we cannot live without our daily fix as it were, so to risk being banned from keeping birds is, in my veiw, a life not worth living.

What high price are we talking for peregrines and goshawks, prices for these 2 species are fantasticaly exagerated by the media, and I remember reading an article several months ago that claimed that peregrines fetch prices in excess of £10,000. If peregrines cost this much then I would be breeding them, you can pick up captive bred peregrines that will do all the things that a wild caught one will do for about £700-£1000, a wild one would not fetch more than this, and would fetch considerably less without the necessary paperwork that it requires.

It would be far better if the government required falconers and keepers to be registered as this would not only cut down on paperwork, but then they would have an acurate idea of how many people there are keeping birds of prey in captivity, and also what birds they currently have on there premises.

I would also like to point out that in the picture that accompanied this article the peregrines are not the youngsters that you say they are as they are both in adult plumage.

Editors note: The picture used in the article shows Clint and Gryke, the name given to the two Malham chicks born in early June 2006. The shot was taken in July 2006 after the pair left the nest for the first time. At this point the birds were no more than two months old - and despite having developed their plumage they were essentially still young birds.

Absolute rubbish - as a falconer / breeder I don't want to see the regestration abolished, but not for the reasons mentioned above. Both the Peregrine and the Goshawk are at an all time high in the UK at the moment, and it realy angers me to see statements like this.

There are more negative effects caused to the young bird population in the UK through nest site disturbance, ringing and banding chicks ect: ect: than any alledged black market it,s about time the RSPB were brought to task over this type of propoganda.

I am happy to pay the REGISTRATION fees at a realistic amount but it appears it costs alot more money to produce a document in the UK than any other EU country.

I think it's important to know were all captive birds are in the uk at any given time, but I can appreciate the hundreds of thousand of ££££ this costs.

Surely the RSPB could afford to subsadise these costs by giving back some of the money it has made on the backs of the wild raptors in the UK.

What a wonderful article...

I would therefore hope that the popularity of the outspoken Clarkson and Paxman could herald a new beginning with regard to the so called "political correctness" of the Auntie. It takes a Yorkshireman to call a spade a spade, and these two deliver the point so well.

I believe political correctness is becoming more of a state of mind than a brigade of arm-wavers chanting "you cant say that". Who are these people? do they actually exist? If Clarko calls a car a vision of ugliness is it ugly people or the owners of the aforesaid cars who are more upset?

I find it difficult to believe that because a man fly-fishes he should be removed from his position of employment, that is nonsense; Liddle should never have been given the right to air these views, to me it is laughable that a thinking, clever man like Liddle should use playground tactics to assault Paxo through his love of fly-fishing.

As for Clarko, I blame points-of-view; as far as I can remember the complaints have always been written by the same PC idiot in Basingstoke initiaing his communication "as a licence-fee payer I find it..." These people have too much time on their hands... putting it in really simple terms, so that even idiots would understand, "if you don't like Clarkson, don't watch him". Ahh well there's always the re-runs of 'Aint half hot mum' on UKGold!

I am a trainee Animal Beahaviourist (M.I.A.C.E) and feel that it is well past time to ban the docking of dogs tails. The practice of docking tails is yet another archaic tradition driven by a few die hard people who wish no more than their dog to look more asthetically pleasing !!! Personally I feel the dog looks and must feel better when they are complete, as God intended (the tail is there for a reason, such as balance,social interaction,with people & other dogs to name but a few). This is a VICTORY for Animal Welfare !! We have had two Rottweilers in the past and the breeders would not leave their tails intact (in case they wanted to keep the dogs and show them),we look forward to purchasing our next dog with a tail !!

Although I don't live in the Dales I go there every week to escape from the noise and pollution of city living. For many years they have provided a respite for the soul.

Unfortunately these days this escape is increasingly diminished by the intrusion of trail bikes and 4x4s recreational vehicles tearing up the tracks and making unwarranted noise in the Dales. I now look for areas where this disturbance is not present so I can find my respite. These areas should be fully protected from this sort of activity.

The registration system is vital to prevent illegal trade. A quick glance at relevant bird trade publications shows just how many birds of prey and other species are available for sale - no registration will mean unregulated trade and the suffering of many animals.

These people are probably also polluters, of air, water and land. Governments have to start getting tough on all people that take from the earth without regard to the Domino effect to the environment.

Some of these "captive" bred birds could pass along parasites pick up from the wild and transferred to captive breeding stocks.

It's a shame, but this sneaky practise is seen all over the world, and some local governments just turn a blind eye to the almighty dollar, or thier votes to office.

I agree strongly that these magnificent creatures should be protected. Surely the government realises by now that the British are not all concerned about wildlife, and we should protect what we have for future generations.

Democracy n. The free and equal right of every person to participate in a system of government.

Dictatorship n. Government by a single person or other group that is not responsible to the people or their elected representatives.

Says it all really.

Great article. One idea is to promote e-democracy from local communities up.

If anyone is interested in local Issues Forums where citizens can engage each other on local issues with local councilors invited to participate, see: www.e-democracy.org/uk

I think this could be a great development. Ripon currently does not pull enough people in to the city centre to shop, especially with Morrisons now being out of town. This could be a great opportunity. I welcome the development of Coltsgate Hill to Blossomgate, Coltsgate Hill has long needed this.

As a Yorkshire born "Pennine Lad" I take the greatest pleasure in returning to the land of my birth to show my Norfolk born wife the beauty of the Dales. We visit the Grassinton area on average 4 times a year with our touring caravan. We bring very little with us as we find all we want, and enjoy spending our money locally, in the surrounding hills.

We both love Skipton and do wander around the little shops and the market. We are guilty of using Tescos and Morrisons but it appalls us that the former is being expanded. Dales towns such as Skipton need to be preserved not overrun and indeed they support the local farming community with such stalls as the one that sells cheese, chutney and fancy biscuits and the one in the arcade that sells country clothing. If the onslaught of the supermarkets is to be allowed to continue these same small businesses will disappear and with them the heart of Skipton and other towns.

Asda was set up as a cooperative of farmers to sell their own produce many years ago; now it is killing the very industry that formed it. It is not just for the Dales people to stand up to the "Big Four", it is for all of those with a love of the Dales and North Yorkshire generally to stand firm with them to fight the destruction of our town High Street shops. We shop, here in Norfolk, at the largest village store in the world. That is Roys of Wroxham. They only buy locally produced fruit, veg, meat etc where-ever possible and are proud of their motto "How far does your food travel". When in the Dales we do the same. We try to get what we want in the local shops and will travel from Grassington to Leyburn to Settle to get it.

We are firmly behind Craven District Council and wish them luck. We also visit Harrogate regularly as my brother works just round the corner from Harlow Gardens so Betty's is a regular "tea-break" haunt for us when we meet up. Stand firm against the "Bigs" and maybe our farmers nationwide will get a better deal and a longer life.

A great loss to the Pennine way/Coast to coast - is there any information on who bought it? I heard it might still be a hostel, but cannot find out.

I am a resident of both North Yorkshire and a small town in Suffolk called Hadleigh. Hadleigh is a beautiful little town full of thriving independent shops - no Boots or Pizza Hut here! However, Tesco are fighting tooth and nail to build a store in the town despite the fact there is a huge 24 hour store on the outskirts of Ipswich only some 8 or 9 miles away!

The residents of Hadleigh are fighting the planning applications - lets hope we can be successful, or the death knell will sound for the lovely little farm shops, butchers, hardware and gift shops that grace this picturesque place!

Fight on Harrogate - we do not need a Tesco store within every 8 miles of this country!

Dear Ms C. Wood,

As a driver of one of the services you talk about in your letter I am Saddened to hear that you are going to give the service that I drive to an operator who will do it for less.

The cost of providing a service should not be your only concearn but how that service is carried out In Ripon the city service has been done now by me for over two years in which time I have called ambulances and the police when Required for any of my passengers Looked after the wlfare of young and old alike and made many friends.

The company that I work for can see the requirment for having a driver who will look after and care for all of his passengers not just get them on and off in the shortest possible time, also to notice when they are not around and to ask friends and neighbours to check on them.

The company that I work for quoted the same price as last year, This can only mean that the company that has now taken the contract is doing it for less and will most lickley give less of a service.

I felt that I had to make my feelings known and now I Have.

This winter the Tawny's seem to have been more vocal tha usual.Here on the edge of Ripon we have heard both male and female calling right through to daylight.

With the risk of avian flu authoriteis are suggesting farmers keep their birds inside, I am sure if we asked the millions of hapless battery chickens their opinion they would much rather be outside scratching around having dust baths and to hell with the risk.

This just confirms my long-held views on the farming methods of today, though I remain stunned that so many customers put price above the reality of what they are consuming. My turkey eggs will be in the incubator next week, the beginning of a tasty, healthy and happy Christmas dinner for us in 2007 as the birds will be raised in the same way as my delicious free-range hens and just over the wall from my pair of ewes raising tasty lambs! We're going back to basics here and it tastes wonderful!!

It is time to review the farming methods used by people unconcerned with the suffering and inhumane treatment they bring upon livestock in pursuit of their greed and profit from such activity. BSE and other problems I feel sure will be proven to be the direct result of mankind's abuse of animals who are often kept in unsanitary and inhumane conditions. When people begin to reap the rewards of such treatment fuelled by greed they may just begin to question the wisdom of factory farming that results in the pre-packaged meat that they buy without a thought of its origin.

Let us hope that events such as this will really begin to spell the end of factory farming but I suspect that it really is too much to hope for. Does the average parent know about the levels of antibiotics and hormones that are administered to animals that ends up as food on the table for consumption by their loved ones? Do they consider the long term affects of consuming such food and does anybody really know? The level of ignorance is astounding.

Would you treat your child or mother like factory farmed animals? It is only good fortune that placed your soul in your body and not in that of a wretched distressed turkey in Bernard Matthews' farm. To do nothing is shameful. DO SOMETHING NOW don't turn your back - it could have been you.

Most countries have no plans at all for coping with this size of a catastrophe, and even those that do are very under-prepared. In August, 2005, the World Health Organization sent every country worldwide a set of recommended strategic actions on strengthening preparedness, reducing opportunities for the emergence of a pandemic virus, improving an early warning system, and containment actions.

As of September, 2006 only 40 countries have developed a preparedness plan. Only 30 have ordered medications for stockpiling, but the manufacturers do not have the capacity to fill the orders immediately.

• www.birdflubeacon.com/PandemicPreparation.htm

Good riddence to bad rubbish. Unfortunately her oversized pension cannot be stopped so that some of the 74% can be clawed back from the oversized increase she awarded herself.

I have refused to eat veal for years but ridiculously it never occurred to me that British calves were being subjected to this obscenely cruel form of farming and then only once they had been taken from their mothers and transported hundreds of miles to the continent. The fact that we have banned veal crates in this country yet ship our calves for the continental veal trade beggars belief.

It is quite simply not acceptable that any animals are treated in this way, god only knows who discovered the 'benefits' of such disgusting farming methids in the first place. I have recently eaten rose veal calves liver, produced locally apparently and it was fabulous. I am now an advocate of the British rose veal trade and suspect that if farmers are prepared to change direction they will find this not only more preferable but a more profitable solution.

Blair's view is asinine. We have, from time immemorial, a history of producing the highest quality livestock. This is made possible by our temperate climate and first~class terrain. When there are still famines and shortages, it is our moral imperative to continue providing food.

We have also, as a nation led the world, and prospered, in producing wool. Artificial fibres depend on non~renewable fossil fuels for their production and are pollutant and carbon~prodigal at all stages of their life~cycle. The current global warming scare serves only to highlight these defects, making a wool renaissance an urgent necessity.

B R I T I S H F A R M E R S, F I G H T B A C K!

I think Ripon will find it hard to support another superstore (from my experience the proposed store is not one of the cheapest) & the new shops will take some filling as we seem to have quite a few empty shops already. Will the new homes on the site be affordable to young first time buyers?

This is little more than blatant empire building by NYCC. The future challenge is to enable communities accross the dales to have more control over their day to day lives by passing greater responsibility down to Parish Councils and local groups. The "golden opportunity" is merely to inflate the egos (and expenses claims) of county councillors and NYCC officials.

For goodness' sake repeal the Hunting Act. Far more people support hunting than are against it as the turnout at every hunt meet on Boxing Day showed. It is part of out way of life and if you don't like it, then OK we're all entitled to our own opinions. There are many pastimes I don't like but I don't expect those who do to give them up just because of my feelings.

Once again it was good to see how out of touch the BBC are with those who live and work outside the M25. Those in control no doubt have a second home in the sticks which inflates our house prices, wear green wellies and wax barbours so think they know everything about country life, and yes eggs do come from Tesco's but have to pass through a chicken first!!

Like alot of country people I do not have a problem with fox hunting except I firmly disapprove of the digging out of a hunted fox - to me this is not hunting. I do however have a problem with stag hunting. Stag hunts claim they are 'managing' deer - this is simply far from the truth, all they manage to do is constantly hunt the best animal that will give them the best of a day's hunt.

One local stag pack has this season recommenced hind hunting only because on the ground they hunt, there is hardly a stag left. I do however accept that whilst some of the best stags are killed by the hunts, we do have a serious problem with commercial poachers - these people by and large are what we call the low life - the morons on motor and quad bikes that are used to turn and flush the deer usually from places where land owners do not approve of hunting.

At the present rate, I will predict that groups of ten or more red deer will be a rare sight within the next five years.

Pleased to see the xmas tree recycling point, which I used today, there are more facilities at the primary school. However I would like to see a bottle recycling facility, is this possible to implement?

The ban on foxhunting should be kept and strengthened. How can anyone justify a pack of 20 or so dogs chasing and hunting down a solitary fox - and in a country that is supposed to pride itself in fair play? May I ask whether those in favour of foxhunting would support bull fighting in Spain? To be consistent and not hypocritical they would have to!

Hunting is barbaric ,outdated and purely for the pleasure of the chase and the kill.Disgusting!!!!!!!!