SPECTATOR is glad Hambleton council's cabinet heeded the advice in our leader column last week, that exacting some sort of financial revenge on Stokesley because it largely managed to escape parking charges would be churlish in the extreme.

However, we would urge the good burghers of Stokesley to keep a close eye on the council's spending plans over the next few years.

Council leader Arthur Barker's reported comment, that there are other ways of recouping the missing £38,000 revenue caused by the parish council's refusal to allow charges on the town's cobbles, could be misinterpreted.

Now Coun Barker is an honourable man and Spectator is sure he didn't mean that the money would be retrieved by stealth.

But given the irritation felt at Stone Cross about Stokesley's "escape", due vigilence might be sensible.

Best for chips

ONE wouldn't normally expect to a glowing tribute to another educational establishment at a public school's prize-giving ceremony.

But that's what the audience heard at Yarm School's 30th anniversary prize giving last Friday.

As part of the afternoon's proceedings, four pupils were asked to give their thoughts about what it is to be a Yarm School pupil. Among them was Katie Peeling who spoke eloquently about numerous aspects of school life, including trips to other schools for sporting fixtures.

Katie said these trips were rated by pupils according to the quality of the teas provided by the host school. Barnard Castle School is the tops, apparently, owing to the outstanding quality of the chips served.

It was a reassuring confirmation of the point made earlier by Yarm's founding headmaster Neville Tate.

He spoke about the importance of having a sense of priorities, recalling the very first question asked by a Yarm boy on the school's opening day in September 1978, which was: "What's for dinner?"

Multi-faceted man

The actor and Radio 4 presenter Nicholas Parsons, who is touring village halls in Teesdale at the present with his one-man show, rang the Bowes Museum's Sheila Dixon on Saturday to take up her invitation to visit the dale's outstanding pile and treasure house.

Mrs Dixon, formerly our Barnard Castle reporter, was delighted to give Mr Parsons and his wife a brief tour. She told Spectator that he was particularly interested in speaking to conservator Matthew Read, the horologist who is taking the famous silver swan to bits.

The urbane Mr Parsons, now 84, used to be an engineer, and told the museum's staff that in his limited spare time he likes to restore grandfather clocks, so he was fascinated to see the swan in pieces.

Truly a multi-faceted man.