SO how was it for you? 2000, the dawn of a new millennium (albeit technically it wasn't) arrived with a large proportion of the population groaning in bed as a particularly virulent flu epidemic gripped the area. The start of the year saw an unusually high number of deaths, as our announcements columns testify and among them a number of good friends, so it was not a particularly happy start to the new era.

By the end little seemed to have changed. Farming was still in crisis, a lot of hot air had been passed about 'solving' the parking andtraffic problems in Craven, village shops and post offices were facing pressure from supermarkets and out of town shopping centres and jobs were lost in older industries, particularly textiles - with Gaskell's

But all has not been doom and gloom. Little Sally Slater caught the nation's attention when her parents appealed for a heart donor and one came forward in time. Sally's recovery has been the sort of story we in the media do like to cover - honestly! Elsewhere you could not keep those Rylstone ladies out of the news as their fund raising effort climbed ever higher and even Hollywood took an interest in the goings-on in the Dales.

But if one story dominated the headlines in 2000 it was - inevitably for we Brits - the weather. These parts used to be renowned for snow. These days its floods as record amounts of rain fell on the Dales. In years to come the hurried defence of a mound of stones across the canal in Skipton to prevent flood damage will become the abiding image of 2000.

Here's wishing everyone a happy - and dry - New Year.