THIS year has seen one of the most vocal campaigns seen in North Yorkshire for a while – and it’s been quite a year in God's Own County.

It’s the year that has seen vast swathes of our rural county surveyed for their potential for industrial fracking by multi-national petro chemical companies.

It’s the year when half a dozen rural schools closed or were considered for closure.

It’s the year when the lack of mental health support for adults, young people and children hit the headlines and more facilities at one of the county’s remaining hospital, the Friarage, looked at risk.

It was 2017 when North Yorkshire County Council announced the county was facing an adult social care “crisis” and have nowhere near enough funding or workers to give our vulnerable elderly the care they will need.

It’s the year when a national report said the shortage of affordable rural homes was to blame for the rapid disappearance of facilities from our rural communities.

But protest against any of the above have failed the match the strength of campaigning against a decision to allow PGL to build a children’s outdoor activity centre in the former police headquarters at Newby Wiske.

Some of the concerns sound reasonable (whether enough was paid for the facility, the loss of trees...) while others objections (the sound of children laughing threatening village tranquillity) less so.

But it is the protest resignation of the local parish council which is disturbing. Even if a council doesn’t represent the diversity of the society it represents in person, it should do so in spirit and should be big enough to accept decisions it doesn’t agree with.

The county is undergoing huge change and faces enormous challenges if we want to continue to live in such a prosperous county which offers a good standard at living.

Resigning over the development of an outdoor activity centre in the current climate could be construed as fiddling while Rome burns.