RESIDENTS of Darlington who have received their February copy of the council magazine Towncrier will find they can have a sticker to attach to their letterboxes: "No junk mail thanks".

And what fell out of this month's Towncrier? Three pieces of junk advertising.

The council's "recycling and waste minimisation" team is running a campaign to cut the amount of junk mail falling on to the town's doormats. A worthy aim, certainly, but in Spectator's colleague's long experience, notices at the letterbox do not work.

It would have been a good deal more to the point if the team had used its magazine space to direct residents to the organisations which chop junk mail off at source.

The wrong railway

IT IS to be hoped that the circulation of Heritage Railway Magazine is limited to a fairly specialised readership, given that publication's rather large gaffe recently.

The new issue of Relay, the magazine for supporters of the Wensleydale Railway, includes in its "stop press" an apology, dated January 27, from the editor of Heritage Railway Magazine for referring to the supply of "a Thumper unit ... to the Wensleydale Railway pending outcome of that company's current financial crisis".

It should, of course, have referred to the Weardale Railway which, sadly, has not had good fortune of late. The Wensleydale Railway is in fine fettle 365 days a year.

Expensive tastes?

SPECTATOR is an expert in neither cooking nor shopping - as Mrs Spectator would readily testify.

But he was confused when reading of Durham County Council's response to the Government's long-overdue call for school meals to be made healthier.

While supporting Education Secretary Ruth Kelly's aims, the county's John Dormer said that more nutritious school meals would only be possible at a price - and the Government would have to cough up the cash.

Seasonal fruit and vegetables, fresh meat or fish - are those things really so much more expensive than the processed food routinely fed our youngsters in the dining hall these days?