WHAT a pity that some members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) have chosen to ignore an overwhelming body of evidence in their response to the defeated second homes council tax proposal.

Eloquent submissions from Dales tradesmen, licensees, full time residents, five Dales parish councils, legal experts, learned academics ...I could go on. Yet still the YDNPA lashes out at second homeowners as the convenient whipping boys for inevitable social change and years of neglect in the national park.

If Chairman Carl Lis is snowed in and short of reading material can I suggest a sheaf of submissions from Tuesday’s lively Richmondshire Council meeting as a start, followed by the reasoned and well informed editorials in The Northern Echo, topped off by the minutes of the parish councils in his patch.

He may then appreciate that this issue is more complex and nuanced than he clearly still believes.

Lindsay Leonard, Fremington, Richmond