SPECTATOR'S spy in the Corgi model world - previous intelligence from whom referred to the miniature version of the stylish Harrogate and District double-deck bus plying route 36 between Ripon and Leeds - reports on a subject that should go straight to the hearts of patriotic folk in Wensleydale.

Among the releases scheduled for early next year in a range known as the Aviation Archive is a diecast metal model of the Mosquito fighter bomber piloted by Group Capt Charles Pickard in the famous 1944 raid on the Gestapo prison at Amiens, France, twinned for many years with Darlington.

The local angle is that Pickard's navigator on Operation Jericho, where the walls of the jail were blown open in an attempt to release 700 French Resistance workers, was Flt Lt Alan Broadley, a distinguished son of Wensleydale whose name appears on the war memorial at Leyburn.

His life, career and untimely death in the aftermath of the spectacular attack involving crews from RAF, Australian and New Zealand squadrons were described five years ago in a book by the Northallerton historian Tony Eaton.

Spectator's spy has a special reason to look forward with great interest to receiving his paid-for model of Broadley's Mosquito F for Freddie. One of his treasured possessions is a handwritten letter received from Broadley's one-time fiancee, the former Kitty Oversby, happily married to another war veteran since 1954 and living in Henley-on-Thames, following a D&S Times review of Mr Eaton's book in 1999.

A worthy exception

DISTRICT councils in North Yorkshire could benefit from an affordable housing programme financed partly from the extra council tax received now second homes attract only a 10pc discount, against the 50pc previously allowed. Nobody with the survival of the countryside at heart could fault the logic of helping people to remain on their home turf, but it's to be hoped the arithmetic of the plan is correct.

Last week we also reported that the Tenant Farmers' Association is reminding those whose place of residence is dictated by the terms of their employment that any "second home" they buy in readiness for retirement, but which is no-one's "main residence" is still entitled to 50pc off its council tax bill. Many local authorities, says the TFA, are still unaware of the provision and it has to be fought for.

It is to be hoped that, when North Yorkshire County Council approved the scheme last week, it was aware of the ruling and also knew how many of what appeared to be holiday cottages were, in fact, retirement homes making some income from short lets until the owners retired from a tied cottage or farmhouse.

Second thoughts, however, prompt Spectator to wonder how many of those in tied homes are in a position to buy any property - unless it is one of those planned "affordable" ones.