Mr Sheard, I am sorry to say that I have no sympathy whatever for this view, simply because of the car park rip-off scheme which, I would have thought, was a fully adequate tax on visitors. Does it not provide funds for visitors' amenities? If not it is even more of a rip-off than I realised.

I have been keenly watching for the first swallows, and was interested to see that they were predicted for the south coast on Easter Weekend.

I did not see any that weekend, but fortuneately I have seen plenty of insect life.

Just as well as my first swallow sighting I saw was 4th April 2002, and after such a monumentous journey the swallows were rewarded.

Summer is definately a way of yet even if the bluebells are in full bloom in my garden, but the sighting fills us with warmth and hope, sort of makes our winter look easy in comparison!!

In a few short days my wife and I will be vacationing for 10 days in the U.K., and we would gladly pay a "bed tax" if it meant that the funds would be used to support the local infrastructure. One of the reasons we are coming to the Dales is to enjoy the history and natural beauty of the area. It is certainly our responsibility to make sure that our visit is not detrimental. In the States, bed taxes are an accepted solution to this universal problem.

My husband and I very much love to roam the English countryside and therefore we are eager that the small communities should be kept the way they are and receive as much official help as possible.

It is a great shame that the government cannot see what jewels these small villages and towns are.

I very much hope that the post offices will stay open, and that the villagers will not have to pay for cash drawing from the cash machines.

I enjoyed reading John Sheard's piece on tourist tax and its relevance to the Dales and although I realise it was written pre Easter it would appear that we are about to disappear beneath the sea after all.

John should take a trip up the Dale towards Grassington where a sea of litter now laps at the side of the road. Such a shame that the return of Tourism to the Dales brings not only prosperity but a trail of litter.

Presumably under the nanny state where people are no longer responsible for their actions, we are expected to employ litter collection carts of the type seen brushing up on Skipton high street to dispose of this mess and keep the Dales looking pretty. Hey! there's an idea for a way to spend tourist tax!

The so called 'bed-tax' has been introduced years ago on the Isle of Texel. As a tourist visiting the Dales regularly I urge you to put forward your 'bed-tax' initiative once again, extend it also to campsites etc. Good luck.

Re: Yorks Dales National Park protest at YHA closures.

Seems absolute hipocrisy when they have just closed one Information Centre and today when Malham is packed solid with visitors they are monitoring whether the busiest centre for years should remain open.

This nonsense has nothing to do with any Labour Party compassion for small furry animals. There is a questionable commitment of troops to Afghanistan, another sleaze problem with Labour party cash for favours involving dodgy Asians, and law and order, the health service, and transport are all at record lows, so what do we do? Drag up the hoary old class war chestnut of hunting, always a good one to stir up the Socialist diehards, and grab plenty of media coverage. And for the third time, egad! It is called a smokescreen, and typical of Tony's preoccupation with spin over substance.

Oh, and by the bye, I notice in today's news that the F&M enquiry has decided that there was no mismagement, it was purely spun badly, and all they need to do next time is get the publicity right. So there you go, you know it makes sense!

This is a complex topic, to take in all practical, ethical and social aspects - and on balance I do not favour a ban. BUT I am not heartened by the weak image presented by members of the hunting fraternity who, in interview, bleat(that is the way thay appear) about the only 'excuse' they can think of - that they 'control foxes'. This is obviously not the reason they hunt and they would be well advised to be more honest. (If foxes were in danger os extinction, I am sure they would be breeding and releasing them).

The rapid loss in biodiversity here in Yorkshire over the last fifty years can be blamed almost entirely on the activities of subsidized farmers. They have not acted deliberately to despoil the natural world they claim to guard for the rest of us: they have simply responded as economic automata to the encouragement offered by nonsensical policies, both at the national and European level. I can think of no reason why they should not gratefully accept continued government finance for doing the sort of jobs that the tax-payer wants them to do. These jobs (on the whole) are not the production of food that no-one will buy, or the grubbing up of hedgerows to release more land for harvesters to turn in. By paying farmers to work as genuine conservation agents, we would take away some of the enormous power currently enjoyed by the supermarkets, which bully and cajole hard-working farmers into a mad scramble to produce ever cheaper food. The recent foot and mouth debacle has shown us clearly that the true value of the 21st century British countryside is not in the food it can produce, but in the spending power of those who visit the country on their weekends and holidays. Any action we can take to encourage greater amenity use of the countryside can only benefit rural communities, and they should welcome these proposals.

I feel that the country pub is so important that they should be exempted from most taxes, particularly at this difficult time after foot & mouth. However the Beurocrats in London do not understand the countryside, and I feel that no help whatever will be forthcoming from government.

Wind farms are ecologically unsound. Apart from the noise, the impact on the skyline, and the horrendous damage they do to bird life, they have another very serious problem. The energy required to create the device, ie extracting the iron, copper, aluminium, concrete, etc, turning these materials into components, transporting the components to the site, and building the final product, which has currently to be supplied by burning fossil fuels, requires more energy than the wind turbine will ever turn out in its life. That is why the subsidies are so high for these monsters. Like recycling empty bottles and newsprint, they are just another con foisted upon us by the pseudo-greens to extract money from the credulous.

Just read your article regarding wind power and wind farms. I expect that the reason urban wind farms were not considered viable was nothing to do with objections from the "chattering classes". Your bizarre hatred of city dwellers has clouded your judgement. It was, I expect, more of a technical issue. A large city is inherently less windy than open countryside. The number of turbines which could be fitted on top of a suitably tall building would be limited. I expect the scope for a wind farm in London for example would only allow for about 30-40 windmills, most of those operating at far lower power output than they would in the countryside. That said, if I'm proved wrong on the technical issues, I'm sure most Londoners would welcome urban wind farms. They would be a beautiful addition to the cityscape, as they are to a rural landscape.

Too late, I'm afraid. In Asia, particularly China and to a lesser extent, India, GM crops are becoming the norm. Genetic Engineering is the most powerful tool that the Human Race has ever got its hands on. We will use it because it is THERE. Period.

As with any powerful tool, it has the power to be used either for good or ill. Doubtless, we will witness both. It is to be hoped that, in the long run, the good effects will outweigh the ill.

Real problem is philosophical. You cannot prove a negative. So at the end of the day, all we can do is hope that our species is sufficiently resilient to cope. It is all down to Darwin. Perhaps "intelligence" as we now understand it is an evolutionary cul-de-sac. Only time will tell!

What was very curious about the F&M outbreak even when cattle movements were at a standstill was how the virus was leaping several miles from farm to farm with unaffected sites between. An outbreak in the future could be equally as serious as the recent one unless the vectors and/or means of transmission of the virus can be pinned down more precisely. What is the role of transmission by birds for instance?

Be security aware, but please be careful not to contribute to light pollution. Choose security lights that cast light downwards, have the timer set to a short period, above all avoid the sodium lights that floodlight all night all, in all directions. Thank you.

Upon visiting my relations I have been in numerous pubs in and around the Yorkshire Dales. I make sure that I stop in at least one each day. I was almost talked into buyng one once...too much work.

Date Received: Thurs 3rd January
Referring to: Foot and Mouth

Imagine you're a business person, you may be - I am. Imagine that business over the years has been getting harder and harder. You work long hours for a low, unguaranteed reward, you feel despondant and fed up, but you carry on as there's little alternative. Then, imagine that despite your hard work, one day the bottom falls out of your market and you are unable to continue. What next?

Anyone in business would shudder at the very thought - but wait! What if you were then offered compensation for your product at an inflated market value, and given the chance to walk away from it all with a six figure pay-out. Just imagine being given the opportunity to give up that business, you know, the one which you claim has been making you miserable for years. Who wouldn't jump at the chance? You'd take the money, feel sadness that all your hard work has come to this, but surely you'd feel relief that you were given the oppertunity to make a new start, yet remain in the house you know as home?

How many business people get the chance to do this when market forces turn against them? No, most businesses are left to fall victim to the economy, with no subsidies to tide them over when competition starts to bite. The business fails, usually through no fault of its management, yet lives are ruined, homes re-possessed, debts mounting up. What then? You can't sit back and take stock, your house is gone and the bank is on your case. If only, you tell yourself. If only I'd been in farming.

Local business person

Date Received: Thurs 3rd January
Referring to: Foot and Mouth

A new method of coping with F&M is not required! If the Government had used the guidelines laid down after the 1967 outbreak, the effects would have been much less catastrophic. But no, President Tony had to use a flawed computer model created by one of his pet ivory-tower academics. Dont forget, this is an administration in which a senior minister was quoted as saying he "had no time for hands-on people, engineers and such as that".

David J Walker, Long Preston

How anyone can consider it appropriate to restart hunting after the FMD debacle is incredible. There has been no research into whether the activities of the hunt helped spread the disease before it was notified. We should all learn lessons from the past and prevent the risk in future. The time is now right, both logically amd morally to cease this arcane practice. No, I'm not a 'PC Townie' or saboteur, my heritage is totally rural Yorkshire. It has long been my own experience that more 'new money' townies who have moved out to the country support hunting than ordinary rural folk. Research and opinion polls seems to back this up. I would also like to offer people an analogy. If I decided to set my own dog on a stray on my farm and encourage it to rip the stray animal to pieces, I would quite rightly get arrested and be convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal. If I tried to claim it was in the name of sport, I would be laughed out of court. To claim there is any difference would be an insult to the intelligence of any educated person.

This has nothing to do with the French, foreign as they may be. It has wholly to do with the bloody-minded British Civil Service, (neither civil nor servile, unfortunately), who HATE any form of enterprise, as it makes them feel inferior, with their inflation-proof pensions, incompetence-based promotion schemes, etc.

I would like to share the romantic view of haymedows too but surely they must have disappeared because their demand and profitability disappeared. Perhaps focus on more 'environmentaly friendly' farming methods is an idea.