Why I have done away with my social media accounts - Carl Les

They created a winter lights trail this year called Luminescence. In place since the autumn we have been meaning to buy a ticket and visit ever since, but as ever we make less effort to visit something only a few miles away. A more determined effort was resolved after the New Year but the incessant rain was still against it.

Realising last week that we only had three days left before closure we went on Thursday. Raining when we left our village, thankfully it had stopped when we got to Swinton. It really was the most pleasant walk through the woods in the darkness, guided by coloured lights from scene to scene, mostly fixed but with some self activated son-et-lumiere in places.

It was still very wet underfoot but by far the most of the pathway is on the rocky hard surface of the dales terrain, the eastern facing edge of Ilton Moor that leads up on to Masham Moor itself, so not bad to walk on. As this is an attraction likely to appeal to youngsters and families the track is suitable for buggies, and we passed a group accompanying a motorised wheelchair, coping with both ends of the age spectrum.

The walk takes about two hours at the most, we went at a faster pace in case the rain did come again, with the extra appeal that there was the expectation of a variety of good food and drink available in the hotel at the finish. One thing I was not expecting was how the numerous carpets of snowdrops are illuminated so well at night, white pools standing out in abundance. We will be returning very shortly during the daytime to see the spring flowers, to enjoy that walk in the grounds in daylight.

I don’t know how successful Luminescence has been, and whether it will have justified the considerable cost of installation. This winter’s wet weather has not been kind to outdoor attractions, certainly not since the New Year when it seemed to pour down every day. However it is a great attraction for our part of North Yorkshire, another proverbial jewel in our crown of visitor attractions and hopefully it will come back next year and annually thereafter.

The debate about a visitor levy for accommodation continues, probably with more questions being raised than answers being given. Who will raise it, how much, who will spend it, what on, will there be exemptions? These appear to be the main quandaries at the moment.

The Mayor of York & North Yorkshire favours one, probably at £2 per person per night and has been talking to various business groups across the county and York. North Yorkshire Council has also conducted a survey of businesses in the hospitality sector. Overwhelmingly their responses are against, seeing it as another cost that risks competitiveness. One anomaly is that it might be levied in Filey but not in Bridlington, Staithes but not in Saltburn. What we haven’t heard much of is the opinion of those who will pay it, and those who supposedly will benefit from it.

Well I’ve finally done it, I’ve deleted my X (formerly Twitter) page, my account and any connection with it. I stopped contributing regularly to my facebook page some time ago, when some faceless, anonymous keyboard warrior opined that clearly because I supported devolution I had wanted to be the mayor of York and North Yorkshire (their opinion - which I didn’t, fact), but he preferred the term Fuhrer.

Clearly said camouflaged champion of the internet thought that was either poignant or humorous, but to somebody with Polish roots it was mindlessly offensive, so I decided I could do without such dialogue. I have kept the account open so I can see others’ contributions, but I don’t think I’ve missed much.

Similarly having waded through pages of X tiles of diatribe, even after daily filtering out the most unnecessary, to find the odd nugget of value I’ve decided I don’t think I will miss much there either.

The national debate about age of participation continues, but it`s sad that a tool that could open up so much knowledge and learning gets mired down by genuine concerns about it being fit for purpose.

Finally, this week marks the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the war the Dealmaker-in-Chief said he would end in 24 hours. Slava Ukrainska!

Carl Les is Leader of North Yorkshire County Council.