DESPITE the snow and ice, there's so much construction work going on around the Dales.

It's mostly happening outside the national park boundaries, of course. Few things big, unsightly and with questionable benefit have been built in the park since the national park authority opened its own headquarters in Bainbridge.

You've got the upgrading of the A1, the new retail park at Catterick Garrison, Bedale bypass and the posh shops at Scotch Corner.

The impact of the Bedale bypass is going to be interesting. Will people on their way to somewhere else still visit the town? Surely the delicious cakes served at the Farmhouse Bakery will continue to pull them in.

The bypass, however, will bring to an end one of my guilty pleasures – can you get in front of the tediously slow caravan by nipping up or down Emgate, the little road beside the market cross? "Rat run" doesn't really do it justice. "A stretch of the Monaco Grand Prix, only with traffic coming in the opposite direction", is probably a better description. I only noticed recently that there's shops, houses and a pub beside the road. I thought the speed bumps were stray dogs.

It can be a euphoric feeling reaching the other end and getting out ahead of the caravan. Yes, an extra two minutes to spend in Lakeland, in Northallerton, wondering what all the different kitchen utensils do and if, as the price tag suggests, they are crafted from solid silver with handles carved from unicorn horn.

The building of another cinema at Catterick Garrison as part of the new retail park is a strange one. Another multi-screen shed is being built in Darlington at the moment. How mandy cinemas do we need?

Sometimes, I like to treat the kids by creating that unique cinema experience at home. I pull the sofa right up to the TV, invite a load of strangers around and turn up the volume really high.

If anyone gets up to go to the toilet half way through, I encourage everyone to stare and tut. And if anyone dares to ask for sweets and drinks, I hand then a packet of wine gums and a bucket of squash and ice, before emptying their piggy banks of all their birthday money.