WITH the good folk of Richmond well and truly roused, and out in significant numbers, it was understandable that the long, overstretched, arm of the law reached out to last Wednesday's heated meeting-that-never-was in the town's Middle School hall.

For some people, incensed at Richmondshire District Council's proposed sell-off of some of the town's assets to fund its move to a shiny new out-of-town HQ, it's clearly personal.

"By the way, it's time you got your hair cut!" was one scissor-sharp salvo lobbed towards the council's leader, upper Dales champion and amiable mop top John Blackie.

But surely someone at the council went a barricade too far the following night when requesting a police presence at an innocuous but perhaps even more important public meeting in Richmond Town Hall, called to discuss the future of the Friarage Hospital.

Violent revolutionary zeal was notably absent from the audience of 50 or so mainly elderly folk inside, and the officer posted outside the door - a sergeant no less - appeared bemused ... if relieved.

Soap star

Eagle-eyed readers of North Yorkshire County Council's Reporter magazine may have been puzzled by the village location of a council mobile library van pictured on the inside front cover. The clue was the signpost which indicated the way to "Hotten" and "Robblesfield". Where in North Yorkshire are these strangely-familiar sounding communities, readers might ask? Nowhere, actually, unless you are an avid watcher of the Yorkshire TV soap Emmerdale.

The picture was used to promote a reader competition inviting them to nominate their favourite local service or retail providers. Let's hope the entries aren't fictional.

Victoria or Edward?

SPECTATOR, that curmudgeonly old codger brought up with a keen sense of historical place, makes no apology for questioning the accuracy of a much younger Tyne Tees TV reporter following an item about a vandalised former church at Middlesbrough described as Victorian.

So far so good until the camera homed in on an engraved piece of architecture clearly showing 1904, three years after Victoria died. If you want to split hairs, the building might well have been started, but not finished, in her reign. A case, perhaps, of someone shooting themselves in the foot in Edwardian fashion?

For beauties only

An intriguing accommodation advertisement was spotted in the doorway of a Darlington tanning parlour this week. "Room to let" it said, but added somewhat enigmatically "suit beautician". What's this room like? Full of mirrors? Or perhaps the landlord needs a makeover.