DECADES ago, a national newspaper ran a regular feature entitled ‘Knights of the Road’. The paper bestowed this accolade, in response to readers’ recommendations, on drivers who’d gone out of their way to help others, usually motorists. A fine, shiny bumper badge went with it, now a collector’s item.

Could a similar scheme be initiated for York pedestrians? What’s prompted this idea is D M Deamer’s Press letter of April 3, ‘Manners cost nothing’.

A few friendly words made the day for an employee at a celebrated city-centre store. Her reaction confirmed the positive effects of well-placed kind words. It’s encouraging when considerate words trigger a response in similar vein. A biblical Proverb captures the mood, ‘...a word in season, how good it is’.

My suggestion is that recognition be accorded to such worthies under the title ‘Knight of the City Streets & Shops’ - make an acronym out of that!

Certificates or gongs (we’re very “gong-ho” in this country) could be presented to exemplary individuals nominated by the public who regularly cheer others up, in the street or shop or just roundabout, with courteous and considerate words.

The accompanying citation might read; ‘For persistently practising polite and personable parlance when perambulating and pausing in premises or on pavements’...but in Latin.

As the heading says, ‘Manners cost nothing’. ‘York, the friendliest city in the UK’...something to aim for, perhaps?

Derek Reed

Middlethorpe Drive

York