Skipton MP Julian Smith has been hailed a champion by the beer industry. Julian received a special champions award from the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) for helping secure the historic cut in beer duty in last year’s Budget. “Last year’s cut was hugely important in sending a message of support to the brewing and pub industry across the country and especially here in rural North Yorkshire,” said Julian. “Our pubs are at the heart of our communities and our brewers make some of the best beers in the world so I will continue to support efforts in Parliament to ensure they have a strong future.”

* The lads from Skipton’s Ermysted’s Grammar School who went along to Skipton Magistrates’ Court to get a taste of court life learned something interesting about the secure prisoner dock at Leeds Crown Court. Asked if they had any questions, one asked if the glass enclosing the dock in the Skipton court was bullet-proof. The answer was no-one really knew, as it had never been tested, although someone had once attempted to climb over the top. It was then added that the height of the dock at one of the courts in Leeds was even greater, and at the top of it were some visible finger prints. The prints, it was explained, had been made by a really determined defendant and had remained, as they were too high up to be cleaned off in the normal way.

* Filming of the Channel 4 thriller Utopia took place around Grassington last week, so I’m told. Film crews based themselves in the national park car park for the filming of the second series of the “dark and enigmatic thriller”. Utopia, staring Alexandra Roach, Fiona O’Shaughnessy and Paul Higgins, was screened for the first time last year and although set in London, was filmed mostly in Merseyside and West Lancashire.

* Schools and businesses across Craven have been urged to support the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund’s Wear Red Day tomorrow. Sharon Cheng, director of the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, said: “This year’s Wear Red Day is timed to fall during congenital heart defects (CHD) awareness week. Around 400 babies and children have open heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary each year and about 10,000 are treated in the unit’s outpatients clinics across Yorkshire, the Humber and North Lincoln-shire.” You can help the charity by wearing red and making a small donation to the fund.

* Children from Eastburn Junior and Infant School were recently treated to a visit from the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association. Fortunately, it was not a rescue situation, but part of the children’s work looking at emergencies. Howard Driver, from the association, brought along some of the tools of the service, including a stretcher, a selection of search lights, and torches, some of which could be used underwater. He was able to tell the children about some of the rescues he had taken part in and at the end of the session invited the children to sit in his Land Rover rescue vehicle. It must have been a thoroughly enjoyable lesson for the children.

* The debates surrounding iPads and whether Craven councillors should or should not be supplied with one, have brought out some interesting comments. One South Craven member said he was willing to learn, but stressed it might take some time for him to become completely at ease with the new technology. “Back in the 50s,” he said. “I kept my phone in a red box at the bottom of the street.” Another pointed out the next generation of councillors would be completely at ease with tablet computers and would expect nothing else. It could, as another pointed out, encourage younger people to join the council – now, that could be a very good thing indeed.

* Carers’ Resource volunteer Christine Feather has a royal date. She has been invited to the Queen’s garden party at Buckingham Palace this summer in recognition of her work. Christine, from Skipton, became a volunteer “by chance” but finds it so enjoyable and rewarding that she has stayed on for more than eight years. She said: “As a volunteer, you get out of the role what you put in – and you benefit just as much as the people you are helping. It gives you a real warm feeling inside and you get to meet some wonderful people in our community.”

* Pheasants, for those of us who live near shoots, are always present, wandering slowly across the road and occasionally changing their mind just before reaching safety and going back the way they came. A colleague here in the office tells me she was sitting on her sofa recently when one landed on her window sill and briefly tried to hold on before slipping off with much flapping of wings. Her dog, of the hunting variety, who had been asleep on the carpet, spent the next ten minutes desperately pointing at it out of the window. On the theme of pheasants, she tells me that out riding – a horse, not a cycle – she keeps seeing pure white pheasants. Apparently, a member of a shoot who kills such pheasants is required to pay something to charity.