AS WE know here at The Diary, news can be a slippery commodity.

Sometimes there's glut of dramatic and significant events to pack the paper's pages.

At other times, the phrase "it's pretty quiet" keeps ringing in a reporter's ears like a bad case of tinnitus.

So we have some sympathy with our journalistic colleagues at BBC Radio York.

We learn from one sharp-eared Press photographer that its reporters were struggling particularly badly on an uneventful last weekend.

The station's top local news headline on an afternoon bulletin - a fire at the Nestl Rowntree factory in York - sparked worry for our snapper.

He wondered how we had missed the story and planned to race over at once to the Wigginton Road plant.

Only when he listened on and the full, gruesome, horrifying details were revealed did he rest easy.

So what was the extent of the destruction wreaked by the inferno?

According to the BBC reporter: "Several KitKat wafers were damaged in the blaze."

THE Diary continues to receive news about pointless road signs.

Today's contribution comes from Bob Hutchinson of Manor Park Close, Rawcliffe, York, who spotted this waste of space in Fishergate.

Standing outside the Novotel, is a beautiful blue pole with an immaculate yellow sign helpfully telling people that Castle Mills Bridge will be closed in November for rekerbing.

As promised the work was carried out three months ago - but the sign remains, more needless clutter on the streets.

Mr Hutchinson said: "It should not be there, those road works finished in November last year, so what is it still there for?"