NEW plans to develop Skipton town centre are unveiled in the Craven Herald today. More details can be found at the public consultation exercise being held at the Town Hall from Sunday. We urge people to visit the exhibition, view them with an open mind and respond.

The Craven Herald welcomes the council's efforts to develop the town for the future. There are those who say that Skipton works well as it is and nothing should be touched but we disagree: a town evolves over the centuries but there are occasions when a great leap forward has to be made. There were those who believed the canal would be the ruination of Skipton - where would we be now if those views held sway?

Skipton is a curious town. Much of its centre is given over to concrete which during daylight hours is covered in chunks of metal. But Skipton also needs, desperately needs, those car parks. The proposals unveiled in today's Craven Herald are a genuine attempt to combine car parking with a vibrant, thriving town centre.

The council may find its multi-storey car park in Cavendish Street the most difficult concept to sell. The idea is that this would be for long stay visits (ie for workers who commute) with shoppers and trippers using short stay facilities in the Town Hall or Coach Street.

The council has kept its promise to listen to what the public has to say. Some of the more controversial aspects of the scheme have fallen by the wayside and we have to say that the proposals now on the table are all the better for that.

It may be that public hostility causes the whole scheme to be scrapped. That would be a tragedy for the town; perhaps not a fatal blow but certainly a message that Skipton is a backward looking rather than forward thinking community.

It is, of course, ultimately up to you, the public, to decide. Let the debate begin.