Showing faith in the cheese and the dale

It’s unquestionably impressive and a huge vote of confidence in a business which has had a chequered history, as managing director David Hartley pointed out in his speech to the assembled guests at the opening.

Over the past 100 years, it has been rescued twice from closure, but in recent years it has grown and prospered on the back of keeping faith in the traditional cheesemaking process and aggressive brand development.

It’s that brand development, which stresses the special qualities of Wensleydale cheese made in Yorkshire, which has taken the Hawes product to new markets, both nationally and internationally.

The new visitor centre is an extension of that new confident branding. The icing on the cake will be the granting of the European Protected Geographical Indication status for Real Yorkshire Wensleydale. A decision is likely later this year.

Rural champion

Peers have been fighting a rearguard action to save one of the Government’s hated quangoes – the Commission for Rural Communities led by Stuart Burgess.

It would appear that they may have had some success in convincing officials that its work – in championing affordable rural housing and improved broadband coverage outside towns and cities for example – has some value. It is now expected that its work will continue well into 2011.

Many of the commission’s staff have already transferred to the Defra’s beefedup rural unit, but there now seems to be an acceptance that rural interests cannot be as effectively championed from within an organisation which by definition has so many different causes to advance.

Following suit?

With Hambleton councillors set to reduce their number as part of efforts to cut costs, how long will it be before neighbouring Richmondshire will follow suit.

What will be the stance of council’s Conservative leadership come the elections in May? Surely, the arguments used to justify the move in Hambleton apply equally so in Richmondshire.