In reply to Goucho:
> How many 'proper' climbers will want to do the routes that the 'mini-bus beginners brigade' climb in the first place.
Depends what you mean by 'proper' climbers. If you mean people who (like you) climb quite hard, then maybe not. But I still there's reason enough to try to minimise the rate at which we wreck easy routes.
> And I think this comment is a bit rich considering the 'chalk plastered' state of most grit grags - 90% of which is totally unnecessary.
I don't know about that, since I've hardly climbed in the peak for quite a while now (and what gritstone I do climb on isn't overhanging enough to retain chalk for long). But isn't that just an eye-sore that could be fixed by a bit of brushing/rain?
My local rock is limestone, so I'm much more sensitive to routes getting polished than I am to overuse of chalk.