AT best the attitude of Addingham Parish Council towards the creation of a recreation path between Bolton Abbey and the village could be described as 'tepid'. Initially, there was support but then that fizzled out when parish councillors declined to hold a meeting about the project, saying that it was up to Bolton Abbey to host it.

Objections were brought up about parking, wildlife and the reluctance of landowners to let the path cross their land until it seemed that the project was doomed to failure. However, there was such a groundswell of contrary opinion in the village, including a large petition in support of the Sustrans plan, that village leaders were forced to think again.

Now the parish council seems to be paying lip service to the idea - while still flagging up issues such as parking and wildlife - then shrugging its shoulders and doing nothing because landowners are objecting to the path going across their property.

Any accusation that the parish council is somehow against the plan is denied with bluster but there is such an aura of specious negativity emanating from the Old School Room it is no surprise at all that such a view is gaining common currency.

However, parish councillors need to be careful with only one year to go to elections, that the issue of the Sustrans path does not become a political wrangle. A lot of villagers who signed the petition and support the path's creation may take the campaign to the hustings in a bid to influence parish council opinion by changing the personnel.

The votes of a handful of landowners do not stack up against the votes of many families in the village who have travelled to use the Great Northern Trail, the Sustrans path beginning in Cullingworth, and find nothing but good things to say about it.

They will have discovered that wildlife species have not deserted the area en masse because of the path and it does not attract as many car using visitors as the Blackpool Illuminations.