Darlington Show was once a highly successful and popular feature of the town's calendar.

So what happened to the fun, the games, the competitions, the displays and the community spirit?

It is now several years since Darlington Show fizzled out amid financial problems and a lack of volunteers.

Wouldn't it be nice to see it return next summer?

Communities which are smaller than Darlington manage to produce a show each year, so it should not be beyond Darlington to do the same.

The timing would be ideal. Not only would it be the perfect way to celebrate the forthcoming improvements to South Park, but an agricultural element to the show would be an ideal response to the foot-and-mouth crisis that has blighted most of this year.

The prospect of a comeback for the show is to be placed on the agenda at the next meeting of the Darlington Partnership, so it will be interesting to see what comes of the discussion.

Of course, it will require a great deal of hard work to make it happen. But the Partnership, which pulls together the main local players in the public and private sectors, is the ideal forum in which to kick-start a community-spirited approach to reviving Darlington Show.

The town needs an annual event to attract a crowd to South Park and celebrate all that is good about the town. Here's hoping that a comeback proves possible.

IT is great news that the former Patons & Baldwin wool manufacturing site in McMullen Road is to be the centre of a £120m industrial park investment.

Darlington's strategic importance as the gateway to the Tees Valley can only be boosted by this kind of development, which is aimed at attracting new businesses and, therefore, jobs.

We wish Lingfield Investments well in the venture and look forward to a site with a colourful part in the town's history becoming a thriving centre of activity once more.

DARLINGTON Football Club chairman George Reynolds was the subject of a wind-up on Goffy's Century FM radio breakfast show last week. A bogus agent called to ask Mr Reynolds if he wanted to sign Stan Collymore.

"Colin who?" asked Mr Reynolds, who had clearly never heard of the ex-England and Liverpool striker.

But Mr Reynolds had the last laugh, with Darlington beating Exeter 4-0 on Saturday.

Who needs Colin whatsisname? Or Stan Collymore for that matter.