Spectator's Notes
| NORTH YORKSHIRE |  | | | CLEVELAND | | | | COUNTY DURHAM | |
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Second phase of A1 work: we’ll be watching
YOU read it here first. Two
weeks ago, Spectator said
the A1 upgrade would go
ahead but that the second
section would be delayed a couple
of years.
Which is exactly what Transport
Minister Ruth Kelly announced on
Monday.
The announcement was a masterpiece
of old-style Labour spin. No
reference to the delay. No regret
expressed over the extended construction
period.
Should we at least be grateful for
the fact that at least the road improvement
scheme is going
ahead? No, we should furious at
the way the region has been
mucked around.
Who will give me odds on the second
phase of the work, due to start
in 2011, being delayed again?
Long-ish service
I KNOW we live in a white-water
world, as a former colleague used
to say, but it has come to a pretty
pass when we start celebrating the
anniversaries of people who have
worked for one employer for five
years.
That's what they are doing at Morrison's
in Barnard Castle, where
the town centre store is now five
years old.
Thirty-four of the staff who helped
open the store are still there and
there's a bit of bally-hoo about that
too.
Still, they may have a point. The
best part of 30 years ago, Spectator
worked in a supermarket as a shelf
stacker. He lasted precisely three
hours in the job.
Soldier's sympathy
There appeared to be plenty of
sympathy for the soldier in Ripon
who, after being taunted by locals,
split the lip of one of them.
We reported last week how the soldier,
conditionally discharged by
the magistrates in Harrogate, was
ordered to pay compensation to
his victim, and costs.
One reader, so incensed at the
treatment of the soldier, sent Spectator
a cheque to cover his costs.
We were pleased to pass it on.
So trusting
IF you wonder where some of the
money goes in local government,
Spectator came across a good example
this week at Darlington's
newly-refurbished Dolphin Centre.
A lunchtime swim is now part of
Spectator's post Christmas/Spring
get-into-shape endeavour and
£2.80 is a cost of an "adult swim".
Having been a couple of times
now, we realise that nobody
checks to see if folk emerging from
the communal changing areas
into the pool has actually paid.
A sign says your receipt should be
handed to a central control point,
but nobody seems to do this.
One wonders just how many folk
actually pay.
2:56pm Friday 4th April 2008
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