THERE is a worrying air of cynicism about the Renaissance Market Towns project taking place in Skipton. Mutterings about consultants being paid large sums to come "up North" to try to sort out the town's problems have been made, others claim they have heard it all before and it will all end up in a report which will be quietly forgotten in county hall's filing cabinets.

Maybe. But the fact is that the Government is not going to give Skipton a blank cheque. The council is not going to be told "here's 50 grand a year to clean up the dog dirt and chip wrappings".

The Renaissance Market Town projects in both Skipton and Settle are about local people coming up with ideas. For example, will the Government really give us the money to build a multi-storey car park? No. But what if it is a multi-storey car park with a cinema, arts centre, sports hall, aquarium, school, council offices or whatever on top?

And what if we could just acquire that bit of property by paying the owners, it would make a fantastic new college, shopping mall, art gallery etc?

The consultants role is not to come up with the ideas. That's the job of we residents. The consultants are there to explore our ideas, present them properly and suggest ways of making them become reality. If Skipton decides it cannot be bothered, then that's the feedback the funding bodies will get and the big projects (and big cheques) will go elsewhere.

That's why it is important that the meeting at Skipton Castle on Tuesday (6.30pm to 8.30pm) is well attended. Even more important is the community planning weekend on July 11 and 12 - that's when any old Joe Soap can put in his tuppennyworth.

Let us wait and see if the whole process is branded a waste of time.

Skipton may well live to regret treating the Renaissance Market Town project with its its usual mixture of lethargy, indifference and cynicism. Let's wait and see before we make a judgement.