IT is Thursday in Romanby and it’s bin day. The blue and green bins have been emptied by the men in their usual efficient and amiable manner, even putting them back so neatly that I feel it necessary to open them up to reassure myself they’ve actually been emptied.

Last Tuesday, the grass verges and greens were cut and things look neat and cared for. This afternoon the mechanical street sweeping lorry made its rounds and I daresay in a week or two we’ll see the appearance of the sludge gulper as they clear the gullies to try and ensure that we suffer no flooding with the coming winter rains.

A couple of weeks ago, we visited friends and family in Surrey and Sussex – places we know well as we’ve lived there at various times. In fact, Surrey is my county of birth. I’d quite forgotten how hilly, narrow and windy the Surrey lanes are.

It was also a shock to find how unkempt they were now with their many potholes and crumbling surfaces.

Horsham in Sussex is a town we know well; we used to live there some 40 years ago. It’s changed, of course, with more pedestrianised areas and many ethnic restaurants.

Still a nice town though, but the verges aren’t as neat and cared for as before and it gives an impression of being uncared for; unloved.

Brighton – so cosmopolitan and truly London-on-Sea, is vibrant, and with its new British Airways i360 tower and Heritage Centre it emits an air of confidence, but its footpaths are woeful and a litigant lawyer’s dream.

After a few days we returned home to Romanby with its cared for greens and verges, and Northallerton’s floriferous and well tended roundabouts – do we really ever look at them?

I’m the first one to criticise our local authorities, and have done in this letters column on various occasions, but after being away I realise that in the main our locals are doing a good job.

You need to get away for a while, to step back, to appreciate what we have.

To paraphrase Kipling: “What do we know of North Yorkshire, who only North Yorkshire know?” It’s lovely to come home, yer know!

David Smith, Romanby, Northallerton