BEFORE anyone rushes to criticise Mike Doyle's plans for a one way loop round Skipton, let's just pause a while to praise him for coming up with a few ideas of his own to at least throw into the melting pot.

The county councillor is fed up waiting for North Yorkshire to come up with some action. So are we. The county council promised that a questionnaire would be delivered to homes in the town in September - let's hope it's sent out in today's post and isn't sitting on some desk somewhere.

Skipton has been fobbed off with promises of "consultation" for too long. About five years ago, at considerable expense, a "traffic management" study was drawn up and the result was the odd bollard here and pedestrian refuge there. Since then a "Traffic Management Working Party" has been set up, whose workings have been shrouded in mystery and whose achievements have been nil.

So Coun Doyle has come up with his own proposals, basically a one way system through the town. He is quite right to highlight danger points, such as the perilously narrow pavements on Newmarket Street and a one way system may well be a method of getting the traffic circulating more freely.

We can foresee objections to plans to divert all traffic coming in from the Harrogate road side of town down Rectory Lane, whose one way system would have to be reversed, but any "solution" will have to make the best use of the existing roads. New build is out of the question.

Coun Doyle leaves the question of High Street open: one way, pedestrianisation, status quo - all have been mooted. Expect a passionate debate.

We are less happy with Coun Doyle's car parking proposals. The simple problem is that Skipton does not have enough spaces and the cost of what currently exists is too high. Motorists will never be convinced by arguments that car parking is relatively cheap and good value; they have no qualms about parking on residential streets to avoid the charges. Forcing them off these streets might raise more income from the commuters but will be a further deterrent to shoppers and, as our letters column shows, there are real concerns among traders about the town's future prosperity.

At least Coun Doyle has opened the debate up. We await with interest the views of residents.