THANK you to the members of the Wear-Tees U3A for their warm welcome at Bishop Auckland Town Hall today - and for their generous cheque for the Butterwick Children's Hospice.

One member came up afterwards to tell me about a previous speaker who'd been a senior police officer.

He'd told of the time the Angel of the North was being lifted into place alongside the A1 and a message had been relayed from the control room to patrol cars: "There are big tailbacks from people gawping at the Angel's erection."