BUYERS of weekly parking tickets in Darlington beware - the sunlight fades the ink displaying when the ticket expires.

A colleague discovered the details had vanished from his £8 ticket only three days after purchasing it in the council's Garden Street car park.

Fearing he may get a parking fine he paid another £8 before reporting the problem to the council.

His nervousness arose out of an incident when the council put up the daily charge from £1.50 to £1.80.

Rarely buying a daily ticket he forgot about the increase, paid £1.50 and received a parking fine.

His explanation won no favours and even though he pays £376 a year in council car parks, and he had paid all but 30p of the correct charge, he still had to pay the fine.

But on Monday a helpful young lady at the town hall said he shouldn't have bought another £8 ticket, he should have first reported the problem.

She admitted the fading ink was a problem but rather strangely suggested he should in future try to avoid parking in the sunlight!

It sounds like the sort of cunning plan Blackadder's Baldrick might come up with to get motorists to leave their cars at home - but what about the loss of all that car park revenue and potential fines.

Spectator is now led to believe that some of the of car park machines are shortly due for replacement and sincerely hopes the council boffins are working on ink that does not just fade away.

Toby's tune

FOR those who would seek to ban hunting with dogs, the following tale might give food for thought.

When Spectator's colleague's electric kettle gave up the ghost last week, her husband was instructed not to purchase another one until they could choose one together; he being born of the "waste not, want not" era and her not likely to get another new one for at least 15 years.

So it was that husband dug into the bowels of his shed, among the straightened nails and reclaimed timber, to bring out an elderly whistling kettle for use until said new purchase.

And thereby hangs a tale. On trying out the whistle to see if it still worked, the household Springer spaniel, Toby, which had been laid comatose in front of the fire, shot to the kitchen and came to heel in front of his master, obviously ready to retrieve.

Excited at the thought of a rabbit or an out-of-season grouse, he had to be taken for a two mile hike to settle him down.

Which begs the question what will they do with him if hunting with dogs is banned? Perhaps he could start a new career on a revived Opportunity Knocks as the "whistling" dog, or maybe they could train him to say 'pheasant' instead of 'sausages' and he could go on a modern-day equivalent of That's Life. But then somebody would probably report them to the RSPCA for cruelty to animals.

Spectator understands the new kettle will be purchased sooner rather than later.