TODAY is National Gutters Day. Yes, honestly. And it's not gutters as in the bits between the pavement and the road which, in Darlington at least, become spreading pools in anything more than an April shower. It's gutters as in what catches the rain from roofs.

Spectator isn't quite sure who is sponsoring this but suspects insurance companies, which feel they are being ripped off by householders whose "storm damage" tends to include anything poorly-maintained and in the area of the main claim. Gutters feature prominently, apparently.

Pleasing as it is to see the ripped-off feeling going in the other direction for once, National Gutters Day should really concentrate on the owners, rarely also the occupiers, of commercial premises. A trip round Darlington town centre on one of the pouring wet days we've experienced recently creates mini-Niagaras in most streets. No doubt shoppers in other towns could tell a similar tale.

In the wrong

DRIVERS are in the wrong if they fail to obey a traffic sign. Spectator suggests that signs - by which is meant those who place them - are in the wrong if they give inaccurate information.

A minor road work is underway in Carmel Road North in Darlington, a busy road which serves a growing number of houses and is the town's western bypass.

From time to time, the workers set up traffic lights. The sign warning of traffic lights, just over the brow of an incline, stands there permanently.

Wrong. Drivers who cannot trust signs will become complacent; and get the blame.

Centre of Britain?

The splendiferous National Jubilee monument is to built near Harrogate because, say the scheme's promoters, Harrogate is the centre of Britain.

Spectator's not sure what criteria have been used to establish this fact but nevertheless has heard it said before. The question is how does one work it out