encouragement for factory workers to take short breaks away from the cities. Post-war recovery With peace, the resurgence of YHA continued until, in 1950, the peak number of hostels open was reached, with 303 open in that year. Membership continued to grow and passed the 200,000 mark in 1950. Overnight stays grew from 1.1 million in 1950 to 1.45 million in 1970. In 1955, the National Office moved from Welwyn Garden City to St Albans, where it remained until 2002 when a further move was made to Matlock. The buildings in St Albans and Matlock were both called Trevelyan House in honour of the first president of YHA, Dr G. M. Trevelyan. In 1964, the number of regions was reduced to ten and financial changes made to make it easier for each region to manage its own affairs. Reform Significant modernisation of hostels had occurred during the 1970s, but by the early 1980s it became clear to YHA that it needed to change, as the stresses and strains of running what was a large organisation began to show on what was almost entirely a volunteer-run body. Direct management of the hostels was removed from the regional committees and a professional management structure was put in place. The regional committees were themselves reformed into four regional councils; North, Central, South and Wales. With a new management, YHA continued to thrive and by 2000 overnight stays had reached a new peak of over 2,000,000. Reflecting changes in the needs of young travellers, much effort was put into meeting a desire for less spartan facilities in hostels, such as smaller rooms, more showers, and the abolition of washrooms. As well as upgrading facilities in existing hostels, other experimental approaches to attracting young travellers were made. In 2000, a series of summer-only hostels utilising university student accommodation were opened in locations near airports such as Luton and Leeds. The experiment was not repeated in following years. A much more successful innovation was the introduction of the RentaHostel scheme. Under this scheme, groups could hire whole hostels for their own use and without normal hostel rules applying. Rentahostel was available during the winter months to improve usage of hostels that were otherwise closed or doing very little business. The scheme continues to run to the present day but is now known as Exclusive Hire. Foot-and-mouth disease crises – 2001 The 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth disease