Avid reader Fred Kidd is well known to many of the staff here. Fred is a stickler for accuracy - quite right too - and he gets very upset when he spots errors in the newspaper.

Out comes his red pen, or whatever colour he has to hand, and he marks up the newspaper and sends the cutting to me.

This week I received another missive from Mr Kidd pointing out two particular errors - spelling mistakes in place names.

In last week's edition we correctly spelled Cross Roads in one section. However, in another we wrongly printed one word Crossroads.

Secondly we printed Wheat Head Lane in a story about a proposed development at Exley Head when it should have read Wheathead Lane. Mr Kidd, who was born and bred there, says the correct spelling was on the wall of 32 Exley Head until it was demolished. The council put up an incorrect sign on the right hand side, but changed it when Mr Kidd pointed out the entry in the book of post codes.

I am grateful for the letter and for the messages of the same ilk I get from other readers. As I often say, we are not perfect and do our very best to correct errors.

As for Cross Roads I will issue another memo.

As one wag pointed out, there was only one Crossroads - not at Exley Head - and thankfully no longer a soap on our television screens.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.