RUMBLING tums may be on the agenda at Yorkshire Dales National Park meetings if members of the public keep helping themselves to authority officers' and members' lunches.

Food provided at village halls and other meeting venues specifically for officials and members is proving too tempting for peckish local people in the public gallery.

The situation has become so bad that the chief executive has warned that legitimate diners are in danger of going hungry.

David Butterworth has now called on chairmen to announce before the lunch break that food is provided for members and officers only.

"Numbers vary, but at one or two recent meetings of the planning committee, there have been as many as ten members of the public who have taken lunch," he says in a report.

"If an unknown number of the public are taking lunch, there is the distinct possibility that some members or officers, who are unable to take lunch straight away, may find there is little or none left.