RESIDENTS of the Yorkshire Dales are celebrating following a long campaign to get the area on the map.

After more than two years of campaigning - with the support of Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron - two brown signs directing people to the Western Dales have finally been installed on Junction 37 of the M6.

Mr Farron was delighted with the result and hoped that the new signs would provide a real “boost” to the economy.

“At junction 36 you’re about four or five miles from the Lake District National Park and that’s sign posted,” he said. “What people don’t know is that if you go past Junction 37 you’re only about two and a half miles from the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Sedbergh is the biggest town in the Yorkshire Dales and people just sail past and aren’t aware it’s even there.

“It think it’s important, particularly at this time when we’re trying to fight back against a recession. We need to make sure we promote ourselves better. We have a world class tourism product and it’s important that we don’t assume that everybody out there knows that.”

Margaret Taylor, curator of Dent Heritage Centre hoped that the move would pave the way for better things to come: “I hope this is a greater step in the right direction. We need to be recognised from other roads and I hope this will lift the awareness of this beautiful area that relies very much on visitors as much as anywhere else in Cumbria.

“We visited Tim Farron because we didn’t feel we were getting a fair amount of visitors to Sedbergh and Dent. Tim has a great understanding of Dent and we only have him to thank for his continued persistence to get a much needed sign to the Dales. It just goes to show how he cares about the needs of the people in the Dales.”

She added: “Dent Parish Council and the Heritage Centre are now negotiating with Capita to have brown signs directing people from Sedbergh to Dent.”