THE PONTYPOOL CARNIVAL: I have mentioned previously how extraordinarily lucky the organisers of the annual carnival were when the day dawned with bright sunshine after days of torrential rain, which actually resumed on the following day.

The event was well reported in the local Press with some good supporting pictures.

However, one thing intrigued me, each report said that there was a massive crowd of 700 people lining the streets to watch the Carnival Queen and her court lead the procession through the middle of the town.

Now I would not pretend to be an expert at counting numbers of people at any event and I was not able to attend the carnival.

However, friends have assured me that the pavements on both sides of the roads following the course were packed with crowds up to seven deep in places.

As the route started at the multi-storey car park in Osborne Road, and then wound around the town leading into the park, I would estimate the parade covered about a mile or more.

As the pavements of the route was covered with people throughout, I feel sure that 700 watchers is a very low estimate indeed, and, in fact, makes the event sound a bit of a flop instead of the resounding success it turned out to be.

The only comparison that I can make is that the grandstand in the park holds 1,300 and that is not a big crowd.

JAZZ IN THE PARK: With the Pontypool Horse Show, Opera in the Park, Pyjamas in the Park, (which I think will prove even more popular if it is repeated next year) and the Carnival all safely tucked away as very successful events, despite this accursed weather of ours, we now look forward to the next big project to take place in this wonderful park of ours, the annual Jazz in the Park.

This is now a three-day festival, running from Friday evening, August 31, until the last concert finishes at 10pm on Sunday, September 2.

As well as the three music marquees, events of various sorts will also be held in the Pontypool Active Living Centre, still better known as the Leisure Centre, the indoor market and in town centre streets.

Entry to all the marquees all over the weekend is by a festival programme, which still only costs £5.

There are five acts for which a separate ticket at £5 each will be needed, and these are Jacqui Dankworth, an Alan Skidmore tribute to Elvin Jones, Humphrey Lyttleton and his Band, Tina May, Ruby Turner and the Grand Union Orchestra.

This system proved a real winner last year, as each seat was numbered and so everyone with tickets was assured of their place.

Previously it had been necessary to queue up outside in the hope that someone would get up and leave, and even then customers could not be certain that they could sit together.

Tickets and programmes are on sale in the Congress Theatre, all Torfaen libraries and Pontypool and Cwmbran customer care centres. Wouldn't it be nice to think of some really fine weather for that weekend.

THE OLD GASBOARD YARD: For months now a huge amount of work has been going on in the old Gas Board yard, opposite the entrance to the Activity Centre. During that time I have been trying to find out what is taking place there.

I have asked everyone from my usual reporters to councillors, always being met with a shrug of the shoulders and the remark that whatever it is, it is certainly a big job.

The only suggestion that anyone came up with was just after the road collapsed on the Clarence roundabout, someone thought that perhaps there was a possibility that the sewer might cave in down there, but no one has been able to confirm it.

It certainly is a very big contract for a small town like ours.

The next time you pass in a bus, have a look down. There is the most gigantic hole and great machines dotted all around it. Great big covered lorries are running in and out of there all day long too.

They used to say that there was terrific secrecy about the Russians testing atomic weapons, but that secrecy is a nothing compared with the difficulty in finding out what is going on in the middle of our own town.

Please, please, if anyone has any idea of what is being carried on in the Old Gas Yard, would you please let me know, no matter how far fetched the story might sound?

JUST A STORY: This is a short story I heard recently that tickled me rather, and I wanted to share it with you.

Some thieves broke into a show house on a new housing estate and stole the very latest top of the range Plasma 42-inch television set, which sells at well over £1,000.

Unfortunately, when the thieves got it home they would have discovered that it actually was a dummy wooden replica of a TV set.

It seems that the builder of the show house had been at that sort of thing for a long time, and was much cleverer than the rather amateurish thieves.