WHAT do Heather Mills and Tadcaster brewer Samuel Smith's have in common?

What they have both done is win awards from the Vegan Society.

Each year, Vegan Society members nominate their favourite vegan companies, products and people.

And in 2007, while it might have been a bad year for Heather in terms of divorce and press criticism, she has at least won a Vegan Achievement Award.

And so has Samuel Smith's for its Cherry Beer, which won the title Best Vegan Drink.

And that's some achievement, according to Colm McBriarty, Vegan Society business development officer.

"The vegan market is growing all the time, so it is no easy achievement to win a Vegan Society Award. We hope that the 2007 Winners will go on to even more greater vegan successes in 2008!

"The Vegan Society would like to congratulate all the winners of the 2007 Vegan Society Awards. Vegans enjoy a wide range of foods, such as vegan chocolate cake, vegan ice cream and even vegan bacon." And beer, apparently.

York councillor and noted vegan Paul Blanchard hailed the brewery's achievements. He said: "These awards are great at raising awareness of the vegan cause. It reminds me of the old vegan joke: "How many vegans does it take to change a light bulb? None, vegans can't change anything." And yet the vegan market is growing all the time with retailers like Lush and Samuel Smiths going fully vegan, with others following.

"Heather Mills gets a bad press you know, but I for one really do appreciate her tireless work promoting animal welfare issues generally."


Weather or not

Readers may recall how flaming June became a soggy excuse for a summer as York was hit by torrential rain, flooding roads and some properties, and even forcing the cancellation of a major meeting at York Racecourse.

But another event affected by the lousy weather was the city's Festival Of The Rivers, with some events having to be cancelled.

The problems have been noted in a report to a meeting of City of York Council's executive member for leisure and culture and advisory panel. The report says the organisers are currently considering moving the timing of the festival in future years. But the move baffled one councillor, Ken King, who asked how anyone could predict a better time for a festival than June. If 2007 is anything to go by, he's right.

With a glorious April, a terrible June and July, a reasonable August and then an Indian summer as we went into autumn, all predictions for 2008 must surely be off.