For someone who was supposed to have retired nine years ago, Kate Empsall is still rushing around Upper Wensleydale, making plans for the future

THE countryside is open for business again. After last year's disaster, the Dales are doing their best to make sure there's a welcome in the hillsides. And former geography teacher Kate Empsall is doing her bit.

She's chair of the Upper Wensleydale Business and Tourist Association - which last year was forced to step up through any number of gears to try and keep its members in business and clear of bankruptcy. That so many businesses survived is a testimony to its spirit and determination.

Even if not born and bred in the dale, Kate must surely qualify for adoption. In her former life, as teacher and deputy head, she regularly brought groups of children there from her school in Tadcaster. For many years, she and her husband had a holiday cottage in Hawes, and then nine years ago, they moved up permanently to a house at Helm, above Askrigg.

"We just fell for it as soon as we saw it," she says. "High up on the fellside with wonderful panoramic views. Such peace and tranquillity."

They run a bed and breakfast business in the house and also have holiday cottages for visitors. "After all those years with children, I would miss not dealing with people."

She was secretary of the Tourist Association, then chairman, and all went reasonably well for the first few years. "There was a lot going on in the dale," she says. "Lots of new ideas. The holiday season was getting stretched. It used to go from Easter to September, now it goes from mid-March to November."

Then came foot-and-mouth disease. "I cannot describe last year except to say it was horrific," she says.

With virtually no business to speak of, Kate and the other tourist-orientated businesses could forget their plans for themed holidays and the like. "Closed signs went up everywhere, often in places where they didn't need to be. We were spending 30 hours a week in the community office at Hawes, often just trying to find out what was going on. Sometimes it was quicker to use the Internet than to deal with county hall," she says.

From welcoming guests and cooking Yorkshire breakfasts, Kate found herself chairing meetings - including one televised live on Sky TV - lobbying Government, councils, the national parks, anyone and everyone, trying to get help for local businesses. "Everyone was affected," she says. "So many people rely directly or indirectly on visitors."

At least the splendid Easter weather got this season off to a flying start. Kate's business was fully booked. Visitors flocked into Wensleydale. "But there's still a long way to go," she says. "I think it will probably take us at least two or three years to get back to where we were."

And despite the spring sunshine, there are still campaigns to be fought. Kate is one of a group fighting to keep Aysgarth Youth Hostel open - a victim of the YHA's loss of business last year.

"It's part of the Herriot trail of hostels. It's well used, very popular, could be used even more. They can't just take one link out. And more than 80 per cent of visitors to the dale are over 45. We need to bring young people in. If we show them this area when they're young, they will want to come back when they're older. I know that from my own experience and with the school groups I used to bring up here."

Then there's their struggle to get decent sign posting from the A1, finding a way that local businesses can accept euros and fighting their way through bureaucracy that gets no simpler.

And in between it all there's her own business to run. Kate also co-ordinates the Askrigg artists' exhibition, takes photos of the Dales and takes a keen interest in environmental issues. For someone who was supposed to have retired nine years ago, it's not exactly a life of idle leisure.

But she is till optimistic about the future.

Wensleydale, she believes, is unique in its mix of population "As well as people native to the dale, there are a lot of people who have chosen to settle here, many academics from Durham university, for instance, highly qualified professional people. Then there are people who were born and bred here but had to move away for work and are now moving back.

"It gives us a wealth of talent and I think makes Wensleydale special, more receptive to new ideas."

The key to the future, she thinks, is to get the people of Wensleydale working together. "Farmers, businesses, the tourist industry. We have to support each other or we sink. We can't exist in isolation."

That's one of the reasons she does virtually all her shopping locally. "I see no point in going out of the dale when we have some brilliant food shops in Hawes. Same with electrical goods. You can go all the way to one of the retail parks and find you're still paying the same price as here."

Another way of working together is those plans for themed holidays, making the most of all those skills and talent. "We can offer expert tutors in everything from painting to patchwork, flower arranging to fly fishing, museums and music festivals, all in the wonderful setting. Wensleydale has everything.