ON Good Friday Adele Hartley's two children were at a loose end, so she came up with an ingenious diversion. She sent them out on a hunt - not for Easter eggs, but for rubber bands.

Mrs Hartley had noticed an increasing number of the bands scattered about her cul-de-sac, Troutsdale Avenue in Rawcliffe, York.

Soon Luke, eight, and five-year-old Tom were busily scouring the street to see who could collect the most.

"Everybody started joining in, including their friends William and Louis," Mrs Hartley told the Diary.

The red rubber bands are discarded by postal workers delivering mail to Troutsdale Avenue.

So every time the children see the postman, they now shout with delight - not because they are expecting letters, cards or parcels, but because it signals the beginning of a new quest for twangy leftovers.

Mrs Hartley reckons more than 20 rubber bands now cling to the fencepost outside. Every so often she'll come across another one, thrown by one of the children into the fruit bowl.

While the rubber band search has proved a hit, Mrs Hartley worries about the consequences of this littering. It must cost the Royal Mail a small fortune in replacement bands, at a time when the price of a first class stamp has just gone up to 30p. And it can't do the local wildlife any good.

"A lot of people have said to me they've noticed them on the streets in town," she said.

"The postmen are lovely around here, always very friendly.

"But wouldn't it make sense for them to hold onto the rubber bands and use them again?"

Anyone else noticed the problem?

LAST week we reported how North Yorkshire businessman Charles Forsyth was jailed for three-and-a-half years for fraud.

He lied to financiers to gain £2 million in credit, then his firm Personal Computer Science collapsed with the loss of 150 jobs.

Forsyth, who had to be dragged back from Australia to face justice, is heir to the ancient Scottish clan Forsyth. Alas, he is struggling to uphold the clan motto: instaurator ruinae, or "repairer of ruin".

YORK-born comic Dan Willis was seeing stars when he performed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival recently - and not just fellow performers Ross Noble and Bill Bailey.

After Dan's act, a racist heckler delivered a punchline of his own - right in the chops.

"I went on, he heckled, I put him down utilising my Shakespearian skill of being 40 times as rude back to him in his face," Dan told comedy website Chortle.

"The crowd cheered, he shut up and the gig went great. But as I came off he ushered me over saying, 'Dan I've got a joke for you' - and punched me."

Mates of the heckler, an army sergeant, then dragged him off.

"I'm only slightly bruised," Dan said, "but have got five minutes of material out of it."

YORK police's latest weapon in the fight against crime is truly frightening.

Tim Madgwick's shorts.

Featured in our photograph yesterday, this silky, thigh-cut, purple and pink pair of peepshow skimpies barely covered the Chief Superintendent's central crime area.

Hardened housebreakers and binge-muggers will surely flee to the hills every time they are deployed. Or is York's top cop planning to introduce his own underwear range, a la Kylie? We are sure men on both sides of the law would love to slip into a sensuous pair of "Madgies".

Updated: 09:42 Wednesday, April 13, 2005