WALKERS were celebrating today after more footpaths were scheduled for reopening around North Yorkshire's top beauty spots.

Swathes of paths in the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors will be opened to coincide with the lifting of some restrictions on animal movements, following the foot and mouth crisis.

North Yorkshire County Council announced plans to reopen rights of way in the Dales around Skipton and Wensleydale, from Monday, September 24.

Large areas of the Moors will be reopened from October 1.

A spokesman for the county council said: "The objective is to open as many footpaths and bridleways as possible in time for the autumn half-term holiday in a bid to promote tourism and encourage walkers and ramblers to return to the countryside."

Rights-of-way will remain closed within three kilometres of confirmed cases of the disease.

Paths surrounding the Thirsk bio-security zone will also remain shut until the government lifts these restrictions.

Councillor John Weighell, leader of the county council, said: "The time is now right for further reopening of rights-of-way. The county council has always adopted a cautious approach and this will not change.

"However, this move should allow more access to the countryside in time for the school half-term."

Mike Addy, chairman of the York branch of the Ramblers' Association, which has 700 members, said: "This is wonderful news. Obviously we've had some problems over the last few months, but generally we've managed to do a lot of road and coastal walks and put something on every Wednesday and Sunday.

"It's going to be great to get back into the Moors and Dales."

Updated: 11:00 Saturday, September 15, 2001