SCROLLING through one of our twitter feeds last week, one tweet stood out; a picture posted by the Environment Agency of a team of their workers fishing no less than 62 lorry tyres out of a river, accompanied by a brief explanation.

The tyres had been fly-tipped just downstream of the beautiful Aysgarth Falls where Bishopdale Beck meets the River Ure in Wensleydale.

The Environment Agency tweeted it acted fast in dealing with the illegal waste, as the spot was also in a prime fish spawning location.

The Darlington & Stockton Times rang the Environment Agency’s press office and asked them for some more information on the heroic response to the potential environmental disaster.

There was a slow intake of breath and the press officer could almost be heard shaking his head down the phone.

“I don’t think we’ll want to say anything about it really; we want to keep it low key, we don’t want people thinking we clean-up fly-tipping,” he said.

“We’ll want to keep this quiet to be honest.”

The Darlington & Stockton Times went back to the Environment Agency’s twitter account to see just how many people followed the organisation.

They had kept it low key by sharing it with a mere 20,500 followers a few hours previously. Not bad.

* The Tour de Yorkshire will descend in the region on Saturday, complete with helicopters, outriders and, of course, the world-famous cyclists.

While following cycling may not be everyone's cup of tea, the celebrations being planning in our towns are truly impressive; live music, beer tents, enormous works of art and day-long celebrations.

Nobody watching the event will be left in any doubt that we know how to throw a party.