'Something has to be done with our visitors'

The probe, to be launched in the summer, is part of a plan to free Haworth of traffic and parking chaos.

The survey is one of the proposals in the just-published Haworth Travel Plan which has been spearheaded by the Bronte Country Partnership, a focus group of tourist organisations, commercial and community groups.

The document has been drawn up by traffic consultants who have visited the village to speak to residents and see the problem for themselves.

The summer survey will attempt to calculate visitor numbers, an age profile, what visitors spend and what locations people are visiting.

It will investigate how visitors travel to the Bronte shrine, where from and what their experience has been.

The plan calls for better management of visitor traffic, some pedestrianisation of the cobbled Main Street and better bus links between the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

Graham Mitchell, BCP treasurer who has been spearheading the project, said they would be looking to organisations like Bradford Council and Metro, West Yorkshire's Passenger Transport Executive, and the parish council to help finance some of the initiatives.

He said: "The most important thing now is that this plan is not put on a shelf and left.

"I want to see people with executive powers take it on board.

"This plan is acting as a focus, bringing things to attention within one document - problems that have been around for a couple of decades."

Bradford Councillor Peter Hill, who represents the Worth Valley, said: "Something needs to be done about managing the visitors to the village which for many weekends of the year is gridlocked.

"We have to make the place more user friendly in traffic terms.

"People are parking all over the place - even in Mytholmes Lane and in the Brow area, away from the Main Street."

He accepted that the problems would not change overnight but the document was a valuable focus on the major problems that needed action.