The hostility of Yorkshire Council has deeply offended town crier, Harry Cryer. Two officials asked him to move on as he sought to advertise a toy shop and warn Christmas shoppers to be vigilant about thieves. Cryer said: "My initial reaction when they told me I was breaking the law was, this is a joke, but I moved on because at the end of the day I don't want any trouble. I just want to get on with everybody because I'm such a jolly person."

A young mother in Wrexham has expressed anger at the council’s lack of urgency in tackling the thriving fungi in the kitchen of her council flat. Emma Williams said: “When I told the council about it initially I was hoping it would be sorted out before Christmas, but I meant 2008, not 2009. Twelve months later we are still waiting for something to be done and I think it is an absolute disgrace.”

This Tuesday Cambridgeshire County Council is expected to approve plans for the construction of a multi-million pound education and enterprise park, designed to promote zero carbon housing. Portfolio holder for growth and development, Tony Orgee, voiced hopes that the park will become and international centre for excellence, saying:"We have the opportunity to really take the lead on developing solutions to low carbon growth. We already attract a lot of interest in our Smartlife centre at the regional college, with building professionals from the across the world visiting us to see the innovative methods of construction they are promoting.”

Basildon Council has angered residents with proposals to change the names of streets on Laindon’s Five Links estate. 500 homes are likely to be affected, and a petition of roughly 130 signatures has been collected in opposition to the changes. Local resident, David Ward, said: “I have lived here for 35 years, so can you imagine the aggro it’s going to cause me to change my address on all my bills, my insurance policy, and everything else?”