3IT was two years ago when a lot of time and effort went into looking at the impact of tourism on those areas of Craven most popular with visitors.

Parish councils, emergency services and tourism businesses were invited to have their say, and the Yorkshire Dales National Park was invited to respond.

The resulting report by the former Craven District Council was described as a 'wake up call' and made a set of recommendations, including that there be greater cooperation between partner organisations.

Two years later, and nothing has changed, apart from Craven Council has gone as a result of local government reorganisation and has been replaced by the vast North Yorkshire Council.

The talking shop that is the area committee of North Yorkshire Council heard of littering, illegal parking and badly behaved visitors.

The 'great unwashed' descended on the district's beauty spots at weekends, enjoyed al fresco barbecues and picnics and left all their rubbish behind.

Residents of Horton in Ribblesdale were so blighted with walkers that some moved away at weekends to get away from the noise and disturbance into the night.

And, although the television programme All Creatures Great and Small is good for Grassington, the village had seen house prices rise out of the reach of locals as visitor numbers, including American tourists, soared.

Craven is far from alone in having large numbers of visitors; but it does beg the question, what use was all that work carried out by the former Craven council; those who took part in the various meetings or who responded to questions could be forgiven for thinking it was a colossal waste of time.