READERS in one small Kendal enclave are congratulating South Lakeland District Council on it new art initiative.

How well their Council Tax was being spent they agreed when a new sign appeared on what, until then, they had assumed merely to be a means of disposing of household waste.

In a move that would have pleased Belgian impressionist Rene Magritte, who considered his paintings to be a defiance of common sense,' the signs slapped on their shiny new green bins declared that they were not really green wheelie bins at all but were for household waste.

"How I laughed," says my informant, but adds: "Then I had the worrying thought that it was not art, but a case of SLDC not ordering enough grey bins for their bold new rubbish collection service - surely not."

LACK OF VISION...

BEFORE being allowed on the site of the Grayrigg rail crash reporter Andrew Daniels and photographer Mark Harrison had to sit though a special health and safety slide-show, the highlight for them being the instruction: "not to take unauthorised photographs or speak to the Press."

"I hope the other rules weren't flouted as these were, for Mark got to take photographs and I did a couple of interviews," says Andrew, adding: "One thing they hadn't bargained for was the arrival of new media - there was no mention of not being able to film the crash site on video!"

DOMESTIC HARMONY...

I WAS a trifle worried when my wife, who is a community nurse, told me she had to go on a Violence and Aggression training course last week.

Happily the course did not appear to be very effective as so far I have not suffered from any change from her normal peaceful and calm demeanour.

MEAGRE OFFER...

THEY are not exactly generous with their special offers down Lancaster way.

Reporter Ellie Hargreaves was driving to work a couple of weeks ago when Bay Radio played a cheesy jingle for Total Fitness of Lancaster all about how if you joined immediately you would get the rest of February free.

The jingle ended with the line "the sooner you join the more you save" - pity then that the date was March 1.