IT IS always good to be able to stress the positive aspects of life in Craven, and today is a particularly good day for doing just that.

For this evening a very special group of people will gather at the Coniston Hotel to celebrate all that is best in our district.

This will be the third Craven Community Champions Awards, our chance to reward the people and groups that make such a difference in the lives of others.

As well as the category winners, we will also learn who has won the title of Citizen of the Year for 2014.

It is sad that so many of the people and groups nominated for the awards who do such good work cannot share in the prizes, for there can only be so many winners.

However, it is also happy news for the rest of us that so much unselfish, community-minded activity is going on in our midst.

Craven is renowned for the quality of life it offers, and those who have had the fiendishly difficult task of judging these awards have had an exceptionally good insight into why that is so - it is very much down those who go the extra mile for others, the same people we celebrate tonight.

On another positive if challenging note, we today applaud the ambition of Skipton Girls’ High School in launching a £500,000 appeal to ensure its £1.7 million learning centre, which is expected to be in place as soon as next autumn, reaches the highest possible standards.

This is an exceptionally tough target, but the quality of Craven’s education is a key factor in its success, and that can only be maintained by setting and attaining goals such as these.