Dales entitled to celebrate an amazing success

ONE of the pleasures of taking the Yorkshire Post is that, on opening its pages, you can be sure that the publication is batting for Yorkshire; putting forward the case for the area in the face of a very dominant London/South East axis.

With that in mind, it was with some sadness and disappointment that I read your piece (Yorkshire Post, April 4) reporting on a recent event at which the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) was presented with a national award.

Winning this award was really an amazing success story for the National Park.

We were shortlisted out of the 650-plus local authorities because of our spectacular success in reducing our own carbon emissions by almost 50 per cent and, through a number of fantastic environmental projects, reducing emissions in the National Park itself.

Then lo and behold, we won it. Wonderful and amazing!

We took a table of 10 for those people who, over a five-year period, had worked so hard and had been instrumental in this success.

Now let’s get to the finance. The cost of attending this event was around £4,000.

However, the annual savings to the YDNPA are in excess of £60,000 per year. I’m no accountant, but I do consider that to be a good deal; it would have been awfully easy for our staff during these difficult financial times to have lowered their sights in terms of achievement this has patently not been the case and I applaud there continued thirst for success.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park remains a success story for this region; let’s celebrate it as such.