"BEAUTY is in the eye of the beholder," said the chairman of Craven District Council's planning committee before moving refusal of a garden balcony addition to the former Settle Police Station.

The planned terrace, with its glass balustrade, represented for the majority of councillors on the committee the unacceptable face of modernism.

And to make it worse, it jarred horribly with the traditional architecture of the listed Victorian police station and courthouse.

Quite apart from the fact it might encourage the holding of parties, smells and noise, so startling people passing by below, it would be an unwelcome blot on an "attractive" building.

Which all raises the question of taste and what for some is an ugly "glass box" is for someone else a clever use of a flat roof, which at the same time dares to be slightly different. It also raises the question whether an entire building of "modern" design would ever win favour with Craven planners, or whether we will be forever stuck in a preserved past.

Meanwhile, in Skipton, the town council is faced with what could end up being a very expensive headache indeed.

The Holy Trinity Church wall is going to need repairing in the not too distant future and a number of options are now facing the council, which became responsible for the church wall and closed graveyard in the 1970s.

Central to its decision is the future of the footpath between the wall and the road. The path could be made wider so people could use it, but that would mean the wall moving back; the path could be diverted through the churchyard, which would mean some sort of ramped access; or the wall could be more cheaply secured with the use of buttresses planted in the ground.

The council is inviting suggestions, as whatever it decides will shape a very important part of the town for many more generations to come.