AT THE recent Craven Community Champions Awards, which I had the privilege to attend, much was made of the splendour of our district's scenery and passing mention also of its fine built environment - as well as the merits of its people, which is what the awards were actually about.

It's not surprising that we should celebrate an area which can boast Malham Cove and Gaping Gill, recently included in a list of the top 100 geological sites in the UK and Ireland, plus Kilnsey Crag, the Yorkshire Three Peaks, Bolton Priory and Skipton Castle for its scenery and heritage.

However, more recent building work has also come in for praise, with Albion Place in Skipton winning a retail development award, while the fact the town has gained accolades for having the best High Street and being the place place to live in the UK is presumably also partly down to the way it has developed in the last decade or so.

Certainly my own impression is that, compared with my memories as a child or even as a trainee reporter at the Craven Herald 30 years ago, Skipton is a neater, prettier place than it once was, with many 'eyesores' removed and scruffy corners tidied up.

Much of this is due to changing economic times; the mills that still survived when I was a youngster have gone now, though we have sought to preserve some vestiges of an activity that once dominated the urban landscape. The property boom meant once neglected patches of land were snapped up to create desirable residences.

This is perhaps not an unalloyed boon, for the mills brought economic activity, providing jobs for large numbers of people, and even scruffy patches of 'wasteland' could have some use - say for car parking, always a consideration in Skipton and other parts of Craven.

Still, I will no doubt be told tourism and shopping have filled the economic gap, and there is no doubt that many successful and forward-looking businesses are thriving on Craven's well-planned business parks.

Looking outside our main town and into the more rural parts of the Dales, a similar theme emerges, to my eyes. Some of the villages seem much neater and prettier than they did even a relatively short time ago, with well-kept buildings and manicured lawns and even verges. In some cases the approaches to the villages are rather different, with roadside plants looking distinctly untamed and the roads themselves occasionally in poor condition.

A number of factors are involved here. One which immediately strikes my undoubtedly biased eye is the relative decline of agriculture, with fewer farms still operating and some of those that remain barely recognisable compared with what they were like a couple of decades ago.

Having grown up on a farm, that change is one I can scarcely help feeling uneasy about, even though the farms I knew wouldn't easily fit in some of today's village landscapes, what with animals being moved around, noise, smells, and tractors up and down the road all day, scattering muck as they went.

It's unlikely that planners would ever have given the go-ahead to such ventures in such scenic areas if they had not already existed, I suspect.

But I would suggest there is a downside to the decline of these messy, noisy activities. Our villages may be prettier and more idyllic, but rural schools are gradually closing, roads are not always repaired or cleared of snow in winter and there is a general feeling that once the tourists go home parts of our countryside slip into a gentle torpor.

Of course lots of people move into the country because they want peace and quiet, and it's probably easier to keep our scenery at its pristine best if there's nothing messy or difficult going on.

I am also aware that some parts of Craven have witnessed highly imaginative projects to breathe new, economically viable life into buildings whose original purpose is long past, and that there are remarkable 'cottage industries' hidden away in our villages - one reason why innovative ways to get broadband connections into rural parts are seen as being so crucial in North Yorkshire.

However, I wonder if that's enough to keep our countryside in good shape. This is only my opinion, but I can't help wondering if the balance needs shifting just a little, whether we should tolerate just a little more disturbance in parts of our rural landscape. I wonder if cash-conscious councils would find it more difficult to justify cutting back in the countryside, whether in terms of local education or keeping roads open in winter, if there was more obviously going on in those communities.

I don't have a problem with towns or villages looking pretty; far from it. But I don't want it to be achieved at the expense of truly vibrant community life, and that isn't always neat and tidy.