IN his letter Doug Clark sensibly says that the cars littering up Malhamdale are the problem, not the people, but the small businesses in the area need the people so they can earn a living. (Cars, not people are the problem, Craven Herald letters, August 17 and online).

A dilemma indeed. However I don't really think that an improved public transport system would do anything to alleviate the problem.

When the weather is nice on a weekend the area is packed with vehicles all arriving within a few hours of each other. Each of those vehicles contains at least two people with most holding more, sometimes up to seven in people carriers. Add to that the four legged friends they bring along for a walk and that adds up to a heck of a lot of people and dogs.

So if the improved bus service is going to run from Skipton a lot more car park space will be needed, something the size of three or four fields in Malham for instance.

How many extra buses would be needed to carry this vast amount of humans and dogs. The buses can't be any bigger than the ones used now due to the size of the roads approaching Malham so you would need a convoy of them.

On top of that there are the agricultural vehicles and delivery vehicles of people who live and work there and you would end up with worse gridlock than at present, especially when the convoy going comes face to face with the one coming back!.

There would be less congestion if you loaded people into Chinook helicopters in Skipton with parachutes and told them to jump when they saw the Cove!! But that would put the fear of God into the Peregrine falcons so perhaps not.

So although improving public transport sounds a good idea it comes with many unintended consequences. And, after all that if you think I've come up with a plan to sort things out you will be sadly disappointed. No idea, sorry, unless you can persuade the Peregrines to go to Whitby for the weekends.

Paul Morley

Long Preston