A COLOURFUL former Guisborough mayor who has no television - because he hates most programmes apart from weather forecasts - keeps receiving licence reminders.

Bob Hoggarth received the latest reminder last week - the first dropped through the letterbox in 1976.

The reminders stopped briefly when he owned a set in the Eighties, but returned after he had got rid of it. Mr Hoggarth receives one or two reminders every year - at present there are no fewer than 15 at his home in Westgate.

By coincidence, the latest reminder from the TV Licensing Authority coincided with last week's D&S Times Looking Back feature reprinting a 1976 report on his difficulties.

Speaking this week, the seventy-something former Royal Horseguard (The Blues) said: "I can remember telling the old Guisborough D&S correspondent, Ernie Howson, about my problems 25 years ago - and I've still got them!"

He was aghast at the alleged bureaucratic "bumbledom" of the licensing system.

"I've written to the authority inquisitors saying their most recent letter was insulting and pestilent because they assume I am dishonest. Up until now, I have managed to live beyond my allotted span of three score years and ten without incurring any criminal offence and I have no plans to change that situation.

"I would welcome a search of these premises by a police officer, with or without a search warrant, to satisfy any reasonable authority that I am not breaking the law. However, I would resist to the death any attempted incursion by licensing authority storm troopers.

"I possess no weapon, offensive or otherwise, and I have not driven on the Queen's highway since 1949. I do not have a firearms certificate or a driver's licence, but the authorities concerned with those have never queried my lack of them.

"So why should the licensing authority imagine I might harbour a television - that modern scourge of humanity, the abominable box which pours out little besides foreign propaganda and entertainment for the feeble minded? The only thing British about the BBC these days are the weather forecasts."

A licensing authority receptionist said: "We send out prompting letters to properties without licences. People can tell us if they don't have televisions and we can stop the letters for a while. They can give us a call and we will make a note of their address. However, the letters will start again after a period of time. That's the way the system works - it's ongoing."

In response to Mr Hoggarth's fear of storm troopers breaking down his door, she laughed and said: "If a detector van is in the area, our licensing people can pop into an address to check the situation."

Smartly-dressed Mr Hoggarth is affectionately nicknamed "Friendly Tory" in East Cleveland Labour Party circles. He was a Conservative councillor for many years, but had friends in all political parties.

He recently raised more than £150 for Guisborough Town Pride by wearing out-of-character casual clothes, trainers and a baseball cap - with a Communist badge - proving he's always Game for a Laugh (even if he's never watched it)