AT LEAST one person last week had nothing but praise for Chancellor Alastair Darling.

Roy Stephenson, the man behind the rather swish and impressive eco-lodges holiday development between Richmond and Brompton on Swale, paid fulsome tribute to him at the official opening ceremony of the lodges.

He said he wanted to thank Mr Darling for “destroying the pound” so that more people would holiday at home this year, and for bringing interest rates to an historic low so that it made more sense for people to sink their savings into lodges likes his, as opposed to leaving cash in the bank or elsewhere.

William Hague, who performed the opening honours, will no doubt pass Mr Stephenson’s fond thoughts to the occupant of No 11 Downing Street.

Sorry state

Spectator has nothing but admiration for James and Abbie Parker, who have opened a greengrocer’s shop in Richmond market place.

We hope they do well.

But what intrigued Spectator more than anything was the statement that the town centre did not previously have a dedicated traditional fruit and vegetables retailer. Yes, there were shops that sold fruit and veg, but not a specialist outlet. That’s a sorry state for any self-respecting market town, not least the country’s Town of the Year.

Soft-ish play

Spectator applauds the sentiment behind plans costing more than £1m to create new play areas in Darlington designed to encourage children to take more risks.

The plan stems from a nationwide policy change which acknowledges that molly-coddling children can make them unable to manage risk in later life.

The idea is to introduce an element of danger into play areas so that children learn through managing what is a controlled risk.

From what Spectator remembers of childhood, any attempt by officialdom in whatever form to provide play areas can be shunned by the daredevil types. There’s a sixth sense in some children which detects when something is designed to be “good for them” and prompts a reaction against whatever has been proffered.

The capacity of children to get into scrapes is immense.

We hope the unspecified alternative to traditional swings and roundabouts will be enough of a challenge for them.