SHOULD you need to travel by taxi in York you might find that the driver has been trained to recite poetry as part of a "Culture Cabs" initiative promoted by the city's Tourism Partnership.

There are 600 drivers and they are being encouraged to proclaim verse, talk to their passengers about York's cultural delights and impart key facts.

I find myself wondering whether this scheme would work here in Bolton.

Imagine the scene as a taxi draws up outside a "local" on the outskirts of town and three conspicuously under-dressed young women, already slightly squiffy, pile inside and request that they be conveyed to the delights of Saturday night Bradshawgate.

"Certainly ladies," the driver says.

"Would you like me to recite a Shakespeare sonnet, something from John Betjeman or maybe a selection from Hovis Presley's Poetic Off Licence?"

"Well," they chorus, "it was recently the centenary of the birth of W.H. Auden and, in view of his fondness for cocktails, something from him would be more appropriate before we get totally legless."

At this point I shake my head because I have to admit that the scenario is a tad unlikely.

Maybe I should change the subject to wind farms.

It is easy to think they are a good thing if you are the sort who worries about global warming and over-reliance on fossil fuels.

But would you want these mighty structures churning out energy near you?

Planning battles are being fought throughout the land as companies which hope to make money from the wind come to legal blows (weak pun fully intentional) with residents who do not want constant noise and spoiled views.

Should they suffer for the greater good of the planet?

This debate is at its fiercest on the Scottish island of Lewis, where it looks increasingly likely that the largest onshore wind farm in Europe will be built at a cost of £500 million.

Supporters say it will create jobs and inject tens of millions of pounds into the local economy, but many islanders believe wildlife will be threatened and damage will be caused to one of the world's biggest peat bogs.

In a way it is a repeat of the episode in the island's history when our very own Lord Leverhulme - Bolton soap magnate William Hesketh Lever - bought Lewis for £150,000 in 1918 with a view to revitalising the island's economy by exploiting surrounding fish resources, developing a chemical industry based on the processing of seaweed, using peat for large scale power stations and transforming unproductive land into forests or fruit and dairy farms.

He is said to have invested the best part of a million pounds on the island, but the locals did not show much enthusiasm for his vision and "land raiders" occupied areas of his farmland in order to continue the local crofting tradition.

Bolton's most famous son pulled the plug on his Lewis dream in February, 1920.

Will today's islanders embrace this latest attempt at a commercial makeover?