IT would be better for everyone if quarrying in the Dales had never started. But it did and all across the countryside the scars of previous workings can be seen.

Sometimes these scars are on a small scale and, in the view of some, actually enhance the appearance of the surrounding countryside. But the remaining quarries are on a large scale and are indubitably a nasty disfigurement.

However, quarrying is a long-standing industry, one which was there centuries before tourism. It might be an industry in its dying throes as it is inconceivable that any new quarry would ever be started in a national park but a small number of our neighbours do still rely on it. Tourists might not like it, the London-based environmentalists might not like it in case it reduces the value of their weekend cottage and those who live on the route of the quarry wagons quite emphatically do not like it. But there are precious few sources of employment in the Dales outside the tourist industry.

Some years ago this newspaper backed the extension of the life of Swinden Quarry, near Grassington, with the important proviso that no more stone should be taken than originally agreed, ie the quarry should have more time to extract the same amount of stone.

Now the national park faces a similar dilemma in relation to Dry Rigg Quarry at Horton-in-Ribblesdale. Owners Lafarge seem to be making every effort to ensure that the impact is as minimal is possible.

Finding a balance between the conflicting demands of the small quarrying industry and the large tourism lobby is not easy, perhaps impossible, but the national park authority should keep an open mind.

Dry Rigg must close. The balance tips slightly in favour of closure in 2009 rather than 2005, if only for the sake of local jobs.