WE hope the experts' complacency about the future of Skibeden tip is justified.

Skibeden is the tip just off the Skipton to Bolton Abbey road where most of Craven's rubbish ends up. It is run by Yorwaste, the private company which is wholly owned by North Yorkshire and York City councils in one of those unfathomable brainwaves that an accountant in London once had during a particularly boozy lunchtime. Yorwaste has secured a lucrative contract to dispose of Keighley's rubbish and will double the amount of refuse it dumps in Skibeden.

Now it is an inescapable fact that if you double the rate at which you put things into a hole, then it will fill up twice as quickly. And once Skibeden is full, then Craven's rubbish will go - well, stand by for lengthy inquiries in a few years.

No need to worry, assures Yorwaste, by 2010 we'll be recycling almost all our rubbish. Maybe they are right but the portents are not good. When the Government floated the idea of paying for each binload of rubbish a household disposes of (this on top of the council tax bill) there was a frosty reception. No Government will run the risk of what would be seen as a modern version of the poll tax. It seems an optimistic premise on which to base waste disposal strategy for the next 15 years.

Even if targets are hit, Skibeden will eventually be full. The search will then start for another big hole in the ground.

People living near a disused quarry, of which there are a few in these parts, should start worrying.