THE decision to call a temporary halt to Burley-in-Wharfedales rapid expansion is welcome news.

While the influx of new residents has been welcomed by the majority of villagers, the prospect of 100 or so houses on the Scalebor Park Hospital site caused considerable alarm.

The village needs time to absorb change. There must be a period where the full effect of expansion to date can be properly examined.

Burley-in-Wharfedale is a popular place with would-be residents - it must remain so. The biggest catastrophe of all would be for the village to become a victim of its own success. If a large-scale housing development appeared on the Scalebor site, where would it all end?

Part of the villages attraction is its semi rural feel. The last thing it needs is developing as a faceless glorified housing estate.

Whenever new housing schemes are put forward there is the inevitable cry of Not in My Back Yard.

NIMBYs have been largely absent in Burley-in-Wharfedale during the housing boom of 1996 and 1997.

But as we approach the end of the century, residents have the right to voice their own hopes and fears.

Nothing would be worse than a huge influx of new residents destroying the villages ability to cope.

It is clear the village schools, already facing a considerable period of change as part of Bradford Councils school review, would not be able to cope with hundreds more pupils.

The line has to be drawn somewhere. However, the rejection of this particular scheme does not mean Scalebor will remain safe.

If anything can be said with any certainty, it is that the bulldozers will not remain idle forever.

It is against this background that we say the village MP is correct to view the long term future of the site with a degree of pessimism.

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